Saturday, August 18, 2007

Burial vs cremation

Cremation. Are you for it or against it?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even before I read the article, my answer was an unequivocal NO! to cremation.

paramedicgirl said...

Me too, Manfred. I'm sticking with tradition. This is just one more innovation that hopefully Benedict XVI or a future pope will turn back the clock on. Bring on the dark ages!!! We've let the wrong kind of light into the Church along with all that smoke.

Michele said...

iam against cremation because its like we d not have faith in God when we are to die. We are to be united with our bodies at the end of ime, and yes, God can recreate the body, but we are not to be cremated.

StarbucksMom... said...

Tradition, unfortunately, is not always affordable. So, is the Church going to subsidize burial costs for Catholics?

StarbucksMom... said...

Burial costs are prohibitive for many, many people. Is the Church going to subsidize the cost?

Anonymous said...

At this point I have instructions to be cremated, then take ashes back to Nova Scotia for burial in the family parish graveyard. I do not want to be buried where I live now because I don't like it here but we have to stay a few more years. If that changes then it's is very likely I will choose burial if I can find a good place for that.

jim klasz said...

you may remember from Eusebius' History of the church that the persecuted Christians in Gaul were denied funeral rites, burial, their bodies burned and the ashes thrown into the Rhine by the pagans in the mistaken apprehension that the Christians' God could not restore their bodies on the Last Day denying them everlasting life.
That ,of course didn't happen and the tradition (small "t" ) can change in and through time .The importance of the ceremony is in the Requiem...it is that first of all we strive to maintain.

Anita Moore said...

We are to be united with our bodies at the end of ime, and yes, God can recreate the body, but we are not to be cremated.

Actually, the Church does not forbid cremation. Paragraph 2301 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.

Anonymous said...

I too am against cremation; but the point I like about this post is the importance of educating ourselves on Sacred Tradition, which is difficult to do as these teachings are not mainstream Catholicism in this post Vatican 2 era( look at the stats on the number Catholics who do not believe in the Real Presence, for example). So thanks PG, for posts which highlight Tradition!