Vatican rules against ashes being scattered

[little2add]

Today, the average North American traditional funeral costs $10,000 or more. This price range includes the services at the funeral home, burial in a cemetery, and the installation of a headstone.

The average cost of cremation with services handled through a funeral home is between $2,000 and $4,000.

burial is just not a option for a lot of people

[Gabriela]

9 hours ago, Anomaly said:

Face it, twenty years after you're dead, almost nobidy really cares.  Why have a shelf for ashes, or a fancy gravestone, or 24 sq ft of real estate, committed to you for the next few hundred years?

This reminds me of when I was doing genealogical research in Germany and discovered from Lurch the cemetery keeper that, after 100 years, they remove your headstone, dig you up, set you aside, dig deeper, put you back in, add about a foot of dirt, put someone else on top of you, and stick their headstone where yours used to be.

Apparently, German cemeteries are just layers and layers of bodies all the way down.

 

 

9 hours ago, Anomaly said:

I think the Church frowns on the scattering because of resurrection of the body.

Jews outright forbid cremation for precisely this reason. I think it's silly, cuz putting you back together is nuthin to God, but you know, religious beliefs, different strokes, etc. 

[truthfinder]

1 hour ago, little2add said:

Today, the average North American traditional funeral costs $10,000 or more. This price range includes the services at the funeral home, burial in a cemetery, and the installation of a headstone.

The average cost of cremation with services handled through a funeral home is between $2,000 and $4,000.

burial is just not a option for a lot of people

This is certainly a problem.  Part of the problem as well is the over-regulation of burials.  Some of this is starting to change with the trend in 'green' funerals.  The push for embalming, particularly embalming people who will be cremated, is ridiculous.  

I've told my family I want to be buried, and not embalmed, but I don't care if they wrap me in a rug. 

[Guest]

Seems too that The Church might be acquiring land for the purposes of Catholic burial, at a cost to those left behind.

[Nihil Obstat]

1 hour ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Seems too that The Church might be acquiring land for the purposes of Catholic burial, at a cost to those left behind.

What exactly are you insinuating?

[A Yearning Heart]

I read one of our local cemeteries (Australia) were going to start putting time limits on plots due to lack of space and an increasing population. So, say after 50 years, they can reuse the plot for someone else. 

As an aside, the cemetary area has different sections for different religions and the land isn't owned by the Catholic Church. 

 

[Guest]

I am still researching and at 71years of age, I need to do so.  I did think that I had my funeral costs covered, now I discover I might need to increase funeral insurance dependant on results of research.  My next move will be to contact a Catholic cemetery in South Australia and see if I can find out the actual cost and should be able to find out actual costs involved.

It is not cheap to be a Catholic, living or dead, which is ok for those who can afford it, a real struggle for those who cannot and somewhere one has to draw the line with no money tree out the back.  Angry? You bet I am.  Justified anger? That would be a point of view.  My parish has just announced that instead of reviewing our giving once yearly, from now on it will be three times yearly.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/catholic-burials-to-cost-more/2007/01/03/1167777155913.html

 

Some cemeteries owned by The Church in Sydney N.S.W. : http://www.catholiccemeteries.com.au/general-info/our-mission-values/

 

 

http://caca36092.staging-cloud.partnerconsole.net/the-sacraments/funerals

Catholic Australia, October 2016:

• This template provides an outline of a funeral booklet based on the Catholic Order of Christian Funerals approved for use in Australia (Sydney: E. J. Dwyer, 1989) and the revised Roman Missal (London: Catholic Truth Society, 2010) approved for use across the English-speaking world.

 

• Conservation of the ashes in a private residence is not permitted
• Out of respect for the integrity and sacredness of both body and ashes, scattering or dividing ashes among family members is not  favoured

Edited October 27, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[A Yearning Heart]

I read another article on it that made an interesting point that by keeping (reposing?) cremated remains in cemeteries, or some other sacred space dedicated for it, allowed the deceased to benefit from the prayers of those visiting the cemetery. I had to think about it for a bit, but I do notice that when I've visited family plots I pray not only for my family, but for everyone whose remains are located there. 

[OnlySunshine]

I've always felt really creeped out by the idea of someone keeping ashes in their home and, worst still, keeping them in a locket around your neck.  I don't know where they get these ideas from but I personally would not feel comfortable in cremating a family member and then "hoarding" their ashes in my house.  I have told my mom that I want to be cremated because I know coffins are expensive and it would be cheaper to rent one for the Mass of Christian Burial and then have my cremains transferred to an urn.  My wishes are expressly for the urn to be placed in a columbarium.  A family friend's mother bought a niche for herself and a niche next to it for her daughter and they were both placed there after their death.  I'm sure the expense is much lower for the niche than an actual burial plot and the plaque they put on the door is probably much lower than a tombstone.

Edited October 27, 2016 by OnlySunshine
correct terminology

[dairygirl4u2c]

17 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Quote

I think the Church frowns on the scattering because of resurrection of the body.

Jews outright forbid cremation for precisely this reason. I think it's silly, cuz putting you back together is nuthin to God, but you know, religious beliefs, different strokes, etc. 

i thought they disapproved of the idea, because of the new age type thinking that your body becomes one with the planet etc. i read something like that anyway.

[Gabriela]

2 hours ago, dairygirl4u2c said:

i thought they disapproved of the idea, because of the new age type thinking that your body becomes one with the planet etc. i read something like that anyway.

That's not what I was taught, but I can totally see that being an ancillary objection in modernity. They've forbidden it for centuries, though.

[A Yearning Heart]

It's taken me a while to consider cremation as a real option for myself.  The whole trouble started as a kid when I watched a James Bond movie where he was trapped in a coffin as it was going in the furnace. He escaped, of course, but it gave me nightmares for ages! *shudder* 

[CatherineM]

I had cousins who owned a mortuary business. If you knew what embalming entailed, you'd want to be cremated. 

[Ice_nine]

Can't they just wrap me in a shroud and throw me in a hole?

[Gabriela]

6 hours ago, Ice_nine said:

Can't they just wrap me in a shroud and throw me in a hole?

That's what they do to Jews. In Israel, anyway. In the US you have to be buried in a coffin by law cuz of ground water contamination stuff. So here, they wrap you in a shroud, put you in an unfinished pine box, and then throw you in a hole.