Vatican reaffirms prohibition on scattering of human ashes
Guideline comes before All Souls Day on Nov. 2
The New York Times
VATICAN CITY — Ashes to ashes is fine, the Vatican says, as long as you don’t spread them around.
On Tuesday, the Vatican responded to what it called an “unstoppable increase” in cremation and set down new guidelines that tell Catholics around the world what has already been policy in U.S. Catholic churches. They bar the scattering of ashes “in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way.”
The Vatican decreed that the ashes of loved ones have no place in the home, and certainly not in jewelry. It urged that cremated remains be preserved in cemeteries or other approved sacred places.
The instructions, which reiterate the Roman Catholic Church’s preference for burial over cremation, are in line with previous teachings. But local bishops’ conferences had requested doctrinal clarification because cremation has become increasingly popular and because there were “no specific canonical norms” for preserving ashes, according to Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which drafted the guidelines.
Since at least 2012, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has posted instructions specifying the prohibition on keeping or scattering ashes rather than interring them.
While church law doesn't spell out the disposition of the ashes, the new Vatican document specifies that these policies are universal. The policies come as cremation is more common, as is the popularity of ashes-scattering — as well as alternative teachings on the afterlife.
At least one Pittsburgharea parish, St. Bernard in Mount Lebanon, requires that family members sign a form if they want a Catholic funeral for a loved one whose remains are cremated. The signer agrees to have the remains buried or entombed as soon as possible.
“It is hard for some [survivors] to let go, but we really are committed to making sure there is a proper respect and regard for the dead,” said the Rev. David Bonnar, pastor of St. Bernard and a former secretary for parish life for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The new guidelines, which Pope Francis approved earlier this year, were released ahead of All Souls Day, which falls on Nov. 2 for Catholics, who are called to remember and pray for those who have died.
The church banned cremation for centuries, but began to allow the practice in 1963, as long as it is not done for reasons at odds with Christian doctrine. Burials are deeply embedded in Christian tradition, and in the United States and elsewhere many dioceses still run graveyards and cemeteries, though cremation and other alternatives are on the rise.
The document explains that the church 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.”
Beyond respect for the deceased, the document notes that burial in a cemetery “encourages family members and the whole Christian community to pray for and remember the dead, while at the same time fostering the veneration of martyrs and saints.”
Burial prevents the forgetting of the loved one, as well as “unfitting or superstitious practices,” the document states.
For that reason, the Vatican said that cremation urns should not be kept at home, save for “grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions of a localized nature.”
But as Cardinal Muller acknowledged, the increasing use of cremations seems inexorable.
The decree came after the Vatican made international headlines for announcing that it was taking a more active role trying to defuse a tense political standoff in Venezuela.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro met Monday with Pope Francis in a surprise meeting.