In October 2016, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” a document establishing norms and giving the Church’s opinion.

Newsroom (02/11/2021 10:40, Gaudium Press) Cremation of bodies is one of the oldest practises in History. In some societies, the procedure was considered commonplace. It was part of everyday life for practical and even sanitary reasons.

The Greeks and Romans used cremation for funeral rituals. For them, cremation was considered the noble destination for the dead. The burial of the bodies, instead, was reserved for criminals, murderers, and for deaths by suicide.

In Japan, for instance, cremation was adopted by the influence of Chinese Buddhism in 552 A.D. Due to land constraints, the Japanese significantly increased the practice, considered it reasonable and even recommendable.

The Church’s position

In October 2016, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under Cardinal Gerhard Müller, issued a document establishing norms and giving the Church’s opinion. “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” cites some practices that are condemned and forbidden to Catholics, such as keeping ashes at home, scattering them at sea (or in space), or even using them to make keepsakes.

The Code of Canon Law, on its part, states that “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.” (Code of Canon Law, Canon 1176 §3).

Therefore, from natural law’s point of view, human nature calls for honouring and revering the deceased with dignity, especially those who have lived in good fame.

Should ashes be kept?

The Church does not condemn cremation but only allows it for sanitary, economic or social reasons.

Furthermore, the instruction “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” states that “The Church raises no doctrinal objections to this practice, since cremation of the deceased’s body does not affect his or her soul, nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life. Thus cremation, in and of itself, objectively negates neither the Christian doctrine of the soul’s immortality nor that of the resurrection of the body.”

However, “the Church continues to prefer the practice of burying the bodies of the deceased, because this shows a greater esteem towards the deceased.”

In the case of cremation, “the ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place, that is, in a cemetery or, in certain cases, in a church or an area, which has been set aside for this purpose, and so dedicated by the competent ecclesial authority.”

However, ashes may not be kept at home or thrown into space or the sea. The document states that “In order that every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewellery or other objects. These courses of action cannot be legitimised by an appeal to the sanitary, social, or economic motives that may have occasioned the choice of cremation.”

Why these prohibitions?

The Church recalls that “burial is above all the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.”

“By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity.”

The Church, therefore, cannot “condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the ‘prison’of the body.”

Contemporary society trends in blatant Contradiction

On the other hand, contemporary culture seems to incur blatant contradictions. While claiming to lead a “natural” path, revering ecology, avoiding over-processed foods, and advocating for the goodness of organic choices, some seem to prefer to have their bodies burned in an all artificial crematory oven.
Why? By choosing to get rid of the corpse as quickly as possible, some of our contemporaries would prefer to see death and everything related to it erased from collective memory. This haste, however, voluntary or subconscious, imposes a disrespectful trend towards deceased relatives by means of hastening decomposition artificially and unnaturally.

Compiled by Gustavo Kralj