DIOCESE OF CHARLESTON
June 29, 2023
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
I am writing to address a growing issue. Today, there is a general misunderstanding of the burial and cremation processes and the Church’s teachings on them. Many times, when a loved one passes away, there is confusion around what to do or how to proceed. Additionally, there is the question of how and where a burial ought to take place. I have heard so many times, “This is my first experience. I don’t know what to do.”
Death is a natural part of human existence. Christ, through his crucifixion and resurrection, conquered death and opened the gates of heaven. Because of this, as Catholics, we understand that death is not the end: it is the beginning of new and eternal life.
Just as the Church celebrates life through baptism, it also cherishes the lives of those who have gone before us through the Rite of Christian Burial. This is why it is important as Christians to be buried in the proper manner and place. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection” (#2300).
The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body. However, the Church encourages full-body burials as the preferred method to preserve the dignity of the person and to guard against abuse.
Today, only 33% of Catholics are having full-body burials. Every year that percentage decreases and other, morally unsound processes increase. These include:
1. Improper interment of ashes: It is a common practice not to bury cremated ashes. Some individuals keep ashes in their homes, scatter them in multiple areas or turn them into material objects.
2. Green burials: Green burials remove the emphasis from the human person and focus on the utility of a “sustainable” and “eco-friendly” burial.
3. Aqua cremation: This process involves discarding human remains via flushing a body out with chemicals and water, then returning its by-products to nature.
These practices are morally illicit in all cases. Burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy, and the same dignity that is owed to our loved ones in life is owed to them after death. This is why we must bury our loved ones with the hope that one day they will share in Jesus’ resurrection.
The Catholic Church has designated the appropriate place of burial: cemeteries that have been consecrated for this purpose. While the Church does permit burial in non-Catholic cemeteries, burial in the blessed ground of a Catholic cemetery is an extension of our baptismal promises. It gives witness, even in death, to faith in the Resurrection. I encourage you to consider this important matter and discuss it with your families.
If you have any questions or concerns, please turn to your priest for advice or reach out to my staff in the Office of Cemeteries.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
In Christ’s love
+ Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS
Bishop of Charleston
26 comments:
I'm not sure what the bishop means when he speaks of "green burials" and says they "...are morally illicit." Many religious orders practice "green burials" in that they bury the un-embalmed bodies in a grave with no casket or with one that will degrade rapidly. I have attended one Cistercian funeral and saw the body placed directly in the ground. The monks at the Trapist monastery in Conyers several years ago opened a large tract of land specifically for green burials.
I was present for a number of burials at Belmont Abbey where I went to college. The caskets were made of particle board. Within a few weeks the grave would "settle," meaning that the lid on the casket had collapsed. One of the monks would then fill in the depression left in the ground.
Bodies eventually decay whether the body in embalmed, sealed in a lead coffin, or placed in an air-tight vault....
Yes, the bishop needs to clarify that part of his letter. I don’t think it refers to what you point out. I would suspect that these monks are respecting both the body of the person who has died, but also the earth to which we are returned. I don’t think we need to be embalmed or placed into a vault or an expensive casket, but it does make exhuming a Body easier, like the incorruptible.
When the primary reason for such burials is a green-ideology, not Christian principles about the dead, that would be problematic.
I'm just not sure what counts as "green ideology." Certainly what the current pontiff and his immediate predecessor promoted couldn't be called "green ideology," though what some--and I emphasize some--in the funeral home industry promote might be called "greed ideology." A friend of mine who is not Catholic, or even Christian (though I would deem her "Catholic-adjacent") wrote an interesting essay on green burial a few years ago that I think is worth reading: https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/imagining-burial/
Thank you. Deacon Fritz, a good point. Another issue, though, that the Bishop of Charleston brings up, is the fact that the Church, at least in this country, prefers the burial of the body, rather than internment of cremains. Yet, in the Diocese of both Savannah and Charleston, parish churches are building on their campuses Columbariums so that the cremains may be interred properly. in principle then, cremation is placed on an equal footing with full body burial in a Catholic cemetery or blessed ground intended for such.
Why would green burial, emphasizing the dignity of the body be wrong?
Large-scale embalming, casketing and burial vaults are an innovation of the last 100 years.
In Orthodoxy as well as the Byzantine Eastern Churches, it is permissible for non-embalmed bodies to be interred in a simple wooden coffin that will, over time, degrade in the same way interred bodies have done so since time immemorial.
While I instinctively gravitate towards the embalming/casketing/vault approach, it's been part of my life's experience, the traditional method of placing appropriately cleaned/dressed/vested remains in a sturdy container that will degrade seems equally valid. Most burials in Europe are effected this way.
I think, thematically, that my comments on what is meant by "green burial" capture those of Fr. Dcn. Fritz. I hadn't yet read all when I posted. Apologies if duplicative.
"Columbariums so that the cremains may be interred properly. in principle then, cremation is placed on an equal footing with full body burial in a Catholic cemetery or blessed ground intended for such."
I've always thought of this innovation as one of those "it's better than nothing" options for what I'll assume are Catholic believers. Intermarriage and catholics lower case c have exploded in numbers and, so too have the options that I can only assume they are demanding.
By appearances, these are "greener", perhaps outside of the notion that's more pop culture than traditional.
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/17dd6a129f7cb25d850d96d9181c23c1?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2813&cropW=5000&xPos=0&yPos=230&width=862&height=485
https://www.oca.org/media/photos/funeral-service-held-for-archpriest-sergei-glagolev
I have a friend who is rector of an up North Episcopal Church. He says he has to make sure that the Hippie-type burials don’t become a neo-pagan “ode to Mother Earth” or similar heresy. Given that his community is drawn from that of a prestigious university of pre colonial origins I. New England south of Massachusetts, it’s a continuing struggle to keep witchcraft from seeping in! I know what he needs to do, but he won’t. Someone has to fight that fire too, eh?
Fr K, I believe the Bishop is referring to human composting where the body is placed a container with green compost material and occasionally rolled around to mix up the decaying bits. At some point the compost is placed into field or garden. Some are also liquified by some process i have not researched. These are then flushed into sewer. I wonder if it would be permitted to construct a sort of sacrarium for this purpose?
A small part of the difficulty is that the preferred method of burial is (1) difficult to navigate without professional help (e.g., funeral home) or (2) rather expensive with professional help, costing twice as much (or more) than cremation in my state of residence. Add to that the lack of solid formation, both in direct catechesis and indirect teaching such as the liturgy and the way most Catholic funerals are conducted these days, it's no wonder.
Green burial, in the sense of burial without embalming or metal casket and concrete vault, is available and closer in cost to cremation, with one catch: where I live, it must be in a designated "green burial cemetery" or on one's own property. A rather limiting condition, and unfortunately so, as this seems a very Catholic way to be buried.
rcg - That's what needs clarification. I found: "In a typical green burial, the body is not cremated, prepared with chemicals, or buried in a concrete vault. It is simply placed in a biodegradable container and interred in a gravesite to decompose fully and return to nature."
I can't see that there would be any moral objection to that green burial.
As for, "When the primary reason for such burials is a green-ideology, not Christian principles about the dead, that would be problematic," keep in mind that a right thing, even if done for the wrong reason(s), is still a right thing.
It may be that the guidelines were established to prevent fads and creeping neopaganism. The contrary would be to eschew practically in favor of a sort of virtue signaling. I have lived in areas where land is so precious that cremation is the only practical alternative. The same goes for burial at sea.
The green that he (I think) is referring to is the treatment of bodies with acids so as to dissolve them and then and flush the remains into the sewer, read an article a while back about it, damn disgusting. On the other hand the Amish use plain pine caskets and do not embalm, just let nature do it's job, and for the most part they use family plots and only use wood markers so that too passes in time. Also, when I visited my family in Germany they took me to the grave site and explained that for centuries they have had a family plot at the church as do almost all the families, about 20 x 20. Used to do pine boxes and followed a rotation, when full they started over crushing down the last one and burying on top. Now they cremate and use cardboard containers, and follow a pattern. All the names are listed on the big head stone on the plot
Amen...
Goodbye, Farewell, Amen...?
MASH.
About the early 50s Korean incidents...
But made in 70s; with the morals and immorality of the 70s..
Since about 2010 or so Things et al worse indeed.ee..
God help us all.
So where are the Catholic cemeteries? As near as I can tell they are mostly within 50 miles of Charleston.
"A small part of the difficulty is that the preferred method of burial is (1) difficult to navigate without professional help (e.g., funeral home) or (2) rather expensive with professional help, costing twice as much (or more) than cremation in my state of residence. Add to that the lack of solid formation, both in direct catechesis and indirect teaching such as the liturgy and the way most Catholic funerals are conducted these days, it's no wonder."
I'm sure, anymore, this contributes greatly.
Most are not affiliated with a church community, why start just because Aunt Millie passed.
When my father passed 10 years ago, all told, we spent just shy of $20K. That would be $26K today when adjusted for inflation. At the time, I felt I was orchestrating a production with a 3 day deadline for completion. It was a bit overwhelming being expected to make so many decisions so quickly. Nonetheless, I'm glad we did what we did, but I suspect many now would choose a different direction.
Byz - About once a year I do a "Planning for Death" seminar and encourage folks to do all the pre-planning they can. Some make pre-arrangements with funeral directors and pay now - the price doesn't increase over time. I encourage them to execute Durable POwer of Attorney for Health Care, especially if they have no immediate family. I also encourage them to get all sorts of paperwork in order - wills, insurance policies, military discharge papers, etc.
Heck, I've even wriotten my obituary. When the time comes, all that is needed is to fill in the date!
And your destination
TJM. Ah, my "destination" you don't know. More to the point, you CAN'T know it. If you think otherwise, you are revealing, yet, again, your un- Catholic understanding of just about, well, everything.
Father K Orwell,
Objectively your voting record is a road map to your destination. Based on that, Your understanding of Catholicism is suspect. And you still can’t come up with a proportionate reason
for voting for the Party of Moloch. But you are in “good” company: McCarrick who lied about the issue to his brother bushops!
Fr. MJK,
Of all the seminars one can have, this one is so practical. We cannot hide from the inevitable, might as well be in front of it.
My father was positively meticulous about his affairs except one he choose to avoid. So meticulous was he that I discovered after he passed that he structured everything to be joint except for his car lease thereby eliminating any estate/probate concerns. That conversation had a duration of under 5 minutes. His records, which I had never looked at before, were astonishingly detailed and, well, there was nothing to do there either. I did try a number of years back to convince him to look into a family plot where I will be placed regardless and he and I did look into it. Unfortunately, "life" kicked back in and the family plot fell by the wayside. The shame of it is where I'm going is beyond picturesque, half of my mother's family is there as well as many others that I knew and it sits on a rise in a valley surrounded by cornfields and a stunning mountain at the other end.
My father's funeral/peripherals was a team effort, however, given my involvement at that time, I saw to many of the details personally - I wanted it to be a certain way as did my mother. I selected the hymns, the readings, I arranged for the specific cantor that I wanted, flowers to look a certain way any/all and I was blessed to have 4 priest friends in attendance. That part was a labor of love if you will, despite the sit down lunch with 2-3 choices (we didn't want buffet lines) being more time consuming to orchestrate than I would have preferred in addition to looking at plots etc. It was as perfect as I could have possibly made it at the local level. It must have been nice, several colleagues who are Hindu stayed for the mass they thought everything was so beautiful. It was here: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipOYZqUUI7cVxQVM2hv0ZHKhtqo8OmC4DgVtODIn=s680-w680-h510
I'm an advocate for preparation. I have my own arrangements loosely decided and clearly articulated. When I get a bit older, perhaps I will put pen to paper. Until then, I'm wholly confident in my sister's commitment to follow what I've articulated without deviation.
Byz - When our mother died in the hospital in 1995 I placed a call to the local funeral director. I said, "You have all the plans and details on file." We'd chosen everything in advance from the casket - the one made for Jewish burials that has zero metal parts and no synthetic components - to the clothes and jewelry she'd wear. The obit was written, the music and readings were selected, and since we did not forget how to drive when she died, we opted NOT to have any limousines, er, the "Family Cars," for trips to the church and cemetery.
As time came to close the casket, the mortician, who I knew well, quietly told me they would remove the jewelry and return it after the burial. I smiled and said, "It's all costune jewelry bought mostly at Belk Department store - she can keep it." He said, "Well, you want the watch - it's a lady's Hamilton." "No," I said, "that watch hasn't worked for 30 years and we've set it to the time of her death."
They didn't know what to do with us.....
Fr. MJK,
I think to the puzzlement of our funeral director, with whom I'm acquainted, we opted for no limousine either. I felt as you did, I didn't forget how to drive and the spectacle of a limo showing up to drive me around made me uncomfortable. Additionally, no where that we were going was so far that I needed anyone else to do what I was perfectly capable of doing myself. I also didn't want a driver, with which I wouldn't likely have be acquainted, tapping his foot if we lingered after the luncheon. I mostly always drive myself so when I want to go, I go.
The coach was new/newer at that time and I must say it did look grand with flags on the fenders.
My father's signet ring is now in my possession as we shared initials. Burying it would have served no purpose. It comes out a few time per year for holidays. My sister has his other ring. His favorite cufflinks, being one of his trademarks, however, are where they belong.
My mother's mother, when she passed, still has her little Timex that was never far away. It likely stopped 29 years ago at this point.
looky looky what showed up in a side bar of an article I just read
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12259677/Dont-fancy-liquified-7-ways-body-disposed-die.html
I believe this may be what he was talking about
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