Cremation and the Catholic Church

There are some Catholics who say that the Church allows cremation.  Others say that cremation is always forbidden in the Church.  What should we believe?

The Catholic Church's preference has always been to bury the dead.  The ban on cremation was to oppose the pagan practices that were considered to be anti-Christian.  The Romans did not believe in an afterlife.  As such, they cremated their dead.  The Christians of the early Church avoided cremation because of the connection with the Roman view.  To be cremated served the purpose of denying the resurrection and afterlife.

Another reason why this practice fell into disfavor among Christians was the fact that Jesus wasn’t cremated.  There is also the belief that the body is the home of the Holy Spirit and it should be respected as such.

The Catholic Church's rejection of cremation was never intended to imply that someone who is cremated would never go to heaven.  The church has never opposed the cremation of Catholics after disasters such as a plague, earthquakes or floods when mass casualties occurred, making individual burials next to impossible.

The Church also permitted cremation in extra-ordinary situations where transporting a body a very great distance would have created extreme financial hardship.

In 1963, while continuing to maintain a strong preference towards burial, the Catholic Church became more open to allowing cremation.  As more and more Catholics became aware of this change in the law, there has been an increase number of cremations among Catholics.

Prior to 1997, cremations had to take place after the funeral Mass so the body could be present during the rite.  Since then, the Vatican has granted permission to allow funeral Masses with the presence of the ashes.

To this day, the Catholic Church Law forbids cremation when it is chosen for reasons that are contrary to Christian teaching.  These include being cremated in an effort to deny the resurrection of the body.

The ashes of cremated Catholics are to be preserved after the funeral in the same manner that a body would be preserved, either through being placed in a mausoleum or buried in a grave which has been blessed.  The Catholic Church does not permit the ashes of our loved ones to be scattered.  

Our respect for the human remains of our loved ones is evident in the teaching of the United States bishops who wrote, “This is the Body once washed in baptism, anointed with the oil of salvation, and fed with the bread of life.  Our identity and self -consciousness as a human person are expressed in and through the body...Thus, the Church’s reverence and care for the body grows out of a reverence and concern for the person whom the Church now commends to the care of God.”

The Second Vatican Council

This year we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Pope John XXIII opening the Second Vatican Council.  It was actually the 21^st Ecumenical, or worldwide, Council of the Church, the second to be held at the Vatican.  Today, it is most commonly referred to as “Vatican Two.”  Why was there a Council?

While it may sound like a flip answer, there was a Second Vatican Council because there was a First Vatican Council.  The First Council met in 1869 to begin addressing the Church in the modern world, but ended abruptly in 1870 when a civil war broke out in Italy.  As early as the 1920’s Pope Pius XI considered calling a council to resume the work that had been begun, but not completed.  The rise of Fascism in the 20’s in Italy and tensions throughout Europe which led to the Spanish Civil War and World War II pushed these thoughts to the back burner.  During the 1950’s Pope Pius XII again considered a council.  However Pope John XXIII, now Blessed John XXIII, took the idea to reality in 1959 when he called for a council.

After two years of planning and preliminary work, the council convened October 11, 1962 with the largest body of bishops ever assembled, with some 2,100 in attendance for the opening Mass.  

The scope of the issues the Council addressed is almost breathtaking.  It dealt with: the use of the organ in Mass, stockpiling nuclear weapons, the place of Thomas Aquinas in seminary curricula, how priests are to be compensated, the purposes of marriage, translations of the Bible, the role of conscience in moral decision-making, worshipping with non-Catholics, and so much more.

Of the 70 documents which the preliminary work had recommended, the Council, meeting in 4 separate sessions, finally agreed on 16.  They included the four “Divine Constitutions” which deal with Liturgy, the Church, Divine Revelation, and the Church in the Modern World.  The nine “Decrees” dealt with the Communication Media, Eastern Catholic Churches, Ecumenism, Bishops, Religious Orders, Training of Priests, the Life and Ministry of Priests, Missionary Activity, and the Role of the Laity.  Finally, there were three “Declarations” which dealt with Christian Education, non-Christian Religions, and Religious Liberty.  

Some of these documents were written after much argument and discussion by the bishops and passed by the skin-of-their-teeth.  Other documents, like Sacrosanctum Concilium [sac-ro-sank-tum  con-sill-e-um] that simplified our worship and put Mass into the language of the people, passed by overwhelming majorities.  

Together, these documents form a turning point in the history of the Church.  They bring about what Blessed John XXIII called Aggiornamento [ӑj-gee-or-nӑ-men-to], bringing the Church up-to-date and out of the Middle Ages and Counter-Reformation.

During this Year of Faith we are all challenged by the Holy Father to study these 16 documents and enter into Aggiornamento ourselves. 

All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween

This time of year, we celebrate All Saints Day, followed by All Souls Day, and then there’s Halloween thrown into the mix!  How do all of these fit together?

If you look at your Church calendar, you will notice the names of saints on almost every day.  The feast of All Saints was established by the Church because numerous martyrs and other saints could not be honored with individual feast days:  there simply weren’t enough days in the year!  So, as the prayer of the Mass states, "we venerate the merits of all the saints by this one celebration” on November 1^st.

From the very beginning, the commemoration of All Saints included, in a special way, the Blessed Virgin.  When Pope Boniface IV dedicated the former pagan temple of the Pantheon as a church almost 1400 years ago, he called it the church of the "Blessed Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs."  Thus, All Saints Day is really a great feast day of Mary, too.  It is a Holy Day of Obligation.

The commemoration of All Souls was introduced in the year 1000.  All the monks of a Benedictine congregation in France began offering a Mass for the suffering souls in Purgatory every year on November 2nd.  The popes in Rome extended this celebration to the whole Church, and since then, we continue to pray for the holy souls throughout the year, but also have a special day devoted to their prayerful memory.

What does this have to do with Halloween on October 31st?  The word “Halloween” is short for All Hallow’s Eve, which is the eve or evening before we honor those who are “hallowed” or have been made holy - that is, the saints.  You’ve heard the word before, in the Lord’s Prayer, when we pray, in reference to God, “hallowed be Thy name.”  Although the name of this tradition is taken from the great Christian feast, the ways we observe Halloween, like dressing in costume and going trick-or-treating, are not connected with any Christian meaning.  These practices have come down to us from the pagan practices of the ancient Celtic societies.  And while there is little harm in dressing up and eating candy, in a Catholic home, participation in Halloween should not be explained as being connected to the Christian feast.  We may certainly enjoy the fun and games, but we should not neglect to talk about the great feasts of All Saints and All Souls.  After the Halloween frolics are over, perhaps while the Snickers and candy corn are being consumed, turn your mind to God and prepare to greet all the heroes of God during this time of remembrance and celebration.

The Year of Faith

Faith is not something one receives whole and entire, once and for all, thanks to one’s family and upbringing or ethnic heritage.  As human beings we are all weak and easily misled by the world, the flesh and the devil.  Just like the apostles, our constant prayer must be: “Lord, increase our faith.” 

Faith is a gift from God.  We have to accept it and live it, to be sure, but as Jesus said: “no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father” Pope Benedict tells us that “especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing” the Year of Faith is a “time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us.”

The gift of faith that comes from God is not just a personal attitude or frame of mind, much less just a feeling or emotion.  In the words of the Holy Father: “there exists a profound unity between the act by which we believe and the content to which we give our assent.”  “[For this] reason, Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the creed from memory.”

One of the reasons that October 11, 2012, was chosen to open the Year of Faith is that it marked the 20th anniversary of the publication of the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” a book which the pope describes as “an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council.”  October 11^th was also the 50th anniversary of the opening of that Council in 1962.

In the aftermath of the Council, many religious educators moved away from repetition and memorization of the doctrines of the faith.  New approaches emphasized the importance of personal conversion and faith in action, especially at the service of others.  These efforts were nevertheless accompanied by less and less focus on the specific content of Christian doctrine, even as society at large began to look suspiciously at authority, tradition and the very existence of absolute truths.  

With time it became clear that many of those being catechized were no longer learning the content of the faith in a way that they could, or would remember.
Pope Benedict has asked that during the Year of Faith we all make a concerted effort “to rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to reflect on the act of faith” (PF, 9).  We are all called to take advantage of the wonderful learning opportunities our parish offers. 

Stuff On The Windshield

With the election less than a month away, many of us are already tired of the barrage of political campaign ads that seem to follow one after the other on television and the radio.  Within one four-minute commercial break the other evening there were eight different political ads.  Each ad featured dark images of the evil one candidate, or another, represented. Many of these ads were not endorsed by any particular candidate, but were offered by various entities on behalf of their own agenda.

Much of the same is happening in the parking lots of parishes throughout the city and the nation as different interest groups leaflet cars.  The 70 million Roman Catholics in the United States represent a sizeable voting block; a block of voters that any candidate or party would like to have in their pocket.  So, the leafleting continues.

Many of you call and ask the parish to put a stop to the practice.  We wish we could.  The parishes of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and their grounds, are private property and no outside group has permission to distribute materials.  The simple fact of the matter is that many of these groups arrive in teams and within minutes have left their leaflets and have moved on to another parish.

Bearing in mind that the Church endorses no candidate or party, and that neither party represents the fullness of truth as taught by the Roman Catholic Church, we consider leafleting to be an insult to the Church and to you, our parishioners.  We ask you to remember that the materials left on your cars may not represent the teachings of the Church, even if they claim to.  Remember, no truth in advertising laws apply to political campaign material.

What can you do?  First, do not confront anyone you may find placing material on cars.  There are numerous instances where parishioners have been assaulted by those whom they have caught leafleting.  Once material has been placed on a vehicle that material no longer belongs to the one who placed it.  We encourage you to throw the material away, but please do not litter the parish parking lot.  Finally, instead of calling the Church, contact the groups or candidates whose material you find on your vehicle and let them know that you do not appreciate their effort.

The important thing to remember is that each of us is called to form our own conscience about who we vote for.  In a few weeks someone will win and someone will lose in elections all over the country, and we are called to support our elected officials whether we voted for them or not.