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Alternate headline: Church reiterates existing rules (that exist to ensure our actions do not undermine age-old doctrine about salvation and eternal life).
The way I figure it, if God is omnipotent, it shouldn’t be a problem for him to resurrect a body that has been cremated and scattered.
Most bodies end up being completely destroyed, even the bones, when left long enough. In certain types of soil, this process may only take a few years.
When they tried to dig up Cardinal Newman, all they found was a coffin plate and a few other inorganic materials...
The same rule applies in my diocese. Cremation is OK, but no scattering. Remains go into a blessed grave.
“..raises many concerns about its full consistency with the Christian faith, especially when they imply pantheistic or naturalist conceptions..”
Sounds like the point is if you scatter ashes or keep them on the mantle, are you acting like a christian or something else?
E.g. If you want your ashes scattered in your hometown because you want to “return home”, such a belief isn’t quite consistent w/believing in the resurection, where your physical body is irrelevant.
Same goes for scattering in a park or something if you like the idea of being “with nature”. In that case, are you acting like a christian - or a druid?
Also, keeping your parents permanently on the mantle may be a bit akin to ancestor worship, which is not a christian tenet.
So I guess it sounds odd to non-catholics, but burying ashes does seem to be a bit more consistent with the faith.
**Catholics in Italy Told Ashes of Dead Cannot be Scattered**
This is correct. Ashes must be buried.
What they do with the bones is outrageous. I never saw this expose' on this subject again. I think the cremation industry bought it out of circulation.
They have no respect for the Body. Everyone thinks it is a nice clean burn then ashes. It is a lie from what I saw in this 90 minute program. This was the nineties on tv in N. Y. PBS.
Just remember you handing over your body to bunch of strangers. You can not tell if that is Aunt May's ashes or a total strangers, besides other things in the ashes. How about what they do to the bones in a dirty shop to grind. Just sick. At least what I saw it was about the whole industry. sick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHBaCZ3slis
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
-—especially when they imply pantheistic or naturalist conceptions.”-—
Understandable with the spread of New Age beliefs and practices.
This is a prudential, pastoral position, subject to change, since the practice is not intrinsically evil.
I believe the original prohibition dates back to the 11th century, and the spread of gnostic sects which denigrated the body, regarding it as a hindrance to spirit.