Honoring the dead
Parish recognizes cemetery during month of remembrance
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published November 10, 2006
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Photo by Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
The Knights of Columbus lead a procession from the flagpole to a new historical marker in St. Clement Cemetery, Center Line. The cemetery has hundreds of graves that date back to the 19th century. | Center Line — As November is the month the Church remembers those who have gone before us, it seemed especially fitting that St. Clement Parish in Center Line recently honored its dead by recognizing its cemetery as a historic landmark.
St. Clement Cemetery, one of about a dozen Catholic cemeteries in the Archdiocese of Detroit, received a Michigan Historical Marker last Sunday during a ceremony that drew several hundred Catholics, city officials and members of the Michigan Historical Commission.
Former St. Clement pastor Fr. Alberto Bondy, the Knights of Columbus and Boy Scouts took part in the dedication. Before and after the ceremony, many people attending took the time to visit graves of their loved ones or tell others where their family was buried in the cemetery.
While some cemeteries may receive a marker because of the layouts or types of monuments, St. Clement Cemetery's diversity is what makes it stand out, explained Laura Ashlee, Publications and Historical Marker Coordinator of the State Historical Preservation Office.
"What really makes (St. Clement Cemetery) interesting is the number of different ethnic groups, and how it reflects the history of the settlement of that area," she said.
Gail Martin, parish council member and who headed up the Historical Marker committee, said by reading the inscriptions, you can tell that many of the early settlers made sacrifices and went through hardships, and had a strong faith.
"They're an extension of our community and church that's not ended by death," she said. "Because of the sacrifices early settlers made, we enjoy the riches of our county today."
Graves in St. Clement Cemetery bear names of Belgian, German, Polish, French and Irish descent. Many of the names are recognizable in the community, such as Schoenherr and Groesbeck.
The cemetery's earliest known grave dates to 1854, and about 800 graves were laid during the 19th century. About 2,500 people in all are interred there.
 In the beginning…Cemeteries have played a central role in the Catholic Church from the beginning of the faith. It started with Christ's victory over death — manifested inside Christ's own tomb. Early Christians, too, relied upon cemeteries to celebrate the sacraments. During the years of persecution by the Romans, Christians would convene in their cemeteries, where Romans were too superstitious to follow them. Some of the earliest Masses were celebrated upon the tombs of martyrs. In fact, the current-day tradition of placing a relic inside the altar of every church dated back to the years when Christians would say Mass upon the tombs. | Glennon Martin, Gail Martin's son and a member of St. Clement's parish council, said he and his mother started working on making the cemetery a recognized historic place about two years ago, after the death of his father. Looking around the cemetery, they realized just how many old graves there were there and decided to look into it.
He called it an active cemetery, with people consistently there praying, walking around and lighting vigil candles. Although his loved ones are in heaven, it's a special and sacred place for them to be buried, he said.
"It's really neat to be able, even in death, to be part of a community," he said.
Fr. Bondy, who was the pastor at St. Clement for four years and is now at St. Anne Parish, Warren, said a closing prayer and a blessing at the end of the dedication ceremony. Fr. Bondy's own and his brother's cemetery plots are at St. Clement, and he was baptized in the parish, he said.
He said cemeteries are sacred to Catholics because we give our lives back to God by placing them in a blessed ground, doing reverence to the body because it is, as Jesus said, a temple of the Holy Spirit.
"Life is sacred, and a gift from God," he said. Cemeteries fulfill what is in the book of Genesis, when God corrects Adam and Eve for their behavior, eating from the Tree of Knowledge: We believe that we were created from dust, and to dust we will return. Cemeteries remind us of the people who have gone before us, and that we will join them in the future — and that Christ thought enough of humanity to assume enlightened bodily form, he said.
"It reminds us of who we are," Fr. Bondy said. "It's a reminder to the living that we're not eternal here, on Earth."
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