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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Catholics consider cremation

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 20, 2008

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Fr. Lawrence Kaiser, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Dearborn, blesses a columbarium in the parish’s Mount Kelly Cemetery. Since the Church’s stance on cremation changed as a result of Vatican II, an increasing number of Catholics are considering having their remains cremated.

Dearborn — Ed Bovich, a trustee of Mount Kelly Cemetery, stands near the cemetery's newly blessed columbarium last week.

"I found my niche in life," Bovich says, smiling, noting that he and his wife, Michele, just picked out a final resting place on the west side of the monument.

Like many Catholics who have spent time thinking about their earthly resting place, the Boviches have changed their attitude toward cremation over time. An increasing number of Catholics are opting to be cremated — something that just a few decades ago was verboten in the Church.

"In those days, we wouldn't think of anything like this," Ed Bovich said. "Specifically, it followed the rule of the Church. Our first question is, 'Does the Church approve?' And if we got the OK there, then we followed it."

The Catholic Church approved of cremations in 1963 as part of the reforms brought about at the Second Vatican Council. Even though the Church still articulated a clear preference for burial of the intact body, the number of Catholics opting for cremation has been on a steady increase since Vatican II, according to both the Cremation Association of North America (CANA) and local Catholic cemetery directors.

FYI • Though cremation is allowed for economic, transportation or personal reasons, the Church prefers burial of the full body as an imitation of the burial of Christ's body. • Cremation must not "demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body" (CCC 2301.) • A funeral Mass should take place with the intact body present, before cremation. • If cremation has taken place before a funeral liturgy, the cremated remains may be present for Mass, but will not be treated as an intact body would. • Cremated remains should be given proper burial in a tomb, mausoleum or columbarium, with the same respect given to a body. • Scattering of ashes, keeping them in one's home, or placing cremated remains in jewelry is against Church teachings. Sources: USCCB, Cardinal Adam Maida's pastoral letter "Blessed Are They who Mourn" (2001).

"Given the percentages in the Dearborn market area, we are at 38 percent for cremation," says Timothy Westfall, administrator of Mount Kelly Cemetery, citing numbers from CANA. "And that's expected to rise up to between 45 and 50 percent in two years."

Westfall says that, while there are no specific numbers for Catholics, the rise in popularity of cremations is clearly increasing. Part of the reason is that more people are aware of the Church's approval.

"The Church is more open to that type of burial," Westfall says. "But then the Church still prefers the body be present at the funeral Mass and then to have the body cremated afterwards."

Indeed, Church teachings contain several conditions for cremation.

First, the cremation must "not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body," according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2301).

Also, in most corners of the world, bishops require — or at least strongly urge — the body not be cremated until after the funeral Mass is celebrated with the body present. Though the Holy See in 1997 allowed U.S. Bishops to grant permission to have cremated remains present at funeral Masses, most bishops instruct their flocks to hold the funeral Masses before cremation. Such is the case in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

"In cases where cremation is chosen, the Funeral Liturgy should be celebrated prior to cremation," wrote Cardinal Adam Maida in a 2001 pastoral letter on Catholic funeral rites. "In those cases where the body has been cremated immediately after death, it is still possible to celebrate a Funeral Liturgy with the cremated remains of the body present."

Some Catholics, unaware of the Church's desire or because of extenuating circumstances — such as transporting a body across the country — do have cremation before the funeral Mass. In the Archdiocese of Detroit, however, the cremated remains aren't treated the same as an intact body would be. "For example, the urn is not covered with a pall and incense is not used," Cardinal Maida wrote.

The reasons to have the intact body at Mass are similar to those which led the Church in the past to prohibit cremation altogether. They stem from respect for the body as a sacred temple of the Holy Spirit. In their 1997 document "Reflections on the Body, Cremation and Catholic Funeral Rites," the U.S. Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy wrote:

"This is the body once washed in Baptism, anointed with the oil of salvation and fed with the Bread of Life. This is the body whose hands clothed the poor and embraced the sorrowing… 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."

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic Al Sharp, a parishioner of St. Kenneth Parish in Plymouth Township, examines Mount Kelly Cemetery’s new columbarium.

Accordingly, proper care of the cremated remains also is required by the Church. Scattering of ashes, or keeping them in one's home, is not permitted. A cremated body should be given proper burial in a grave, tomb, mausoleum or columbarium.

In secular society, an industry has been built around what people might do with cremated remains. Some funeral homes will sell jewelry in which to place a portion of the ashes. Some companies have even floated more outlandish ideas — turning the ashes into a diamond or putting them aboard a rocket and blasting them into outer space, for example.

Msgr. Patrick Halfpenny, pastor of St. Paul on the Lake Parish in Grosse Pointe Farms, says the ideas of a secular culture, unfortunately, can lure a Catholic family to make poor decisions about how to treat a cremated body.

"The difficulty is the cultural popularity of this," says Msgr. Halfpenny, whose parish has a columbarium on site, and a cemetery off site. "It sometimes gets people making decisions before they take into account and do the reflection the Church asks them to do."

He says that the faithful have mixed attitudes when it comes to cremation. Older generations remember when cremation was strictly forbidden, and often shy away from the practice. Yet younger generations of Catholics, knowing that cremation is now permitted, may not understand all the Church asks regarding proper funeral rites, or why She asks it.

Still, the shifting attitude toward cremation is being witnessed daily at Catholic cemeteries. At Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, for example, David Graylin has sold final resting places for more than three decades.

"I would say that, probably back in the 1960s, at the time of the Second Vatican Council, we started to bury cremated remains out here and the number was incredibly low," Graylin says. "And every year since, the numbers seem to increase. It's become a bigger part of the business. There's more of a demand."

While Graylin says Holy Sepulchre doesn't have as high a percentage of cremations as local non-Catholic cemeteries do, about 20 to 25 percent of their burials are of cremated remains.

Cost and transportation are two factors, Graylin says. A site for cremated remains costs about $400 less than a full-size cemetery plot. Up to three containers of cremated remains can be placed above an existing adult burial. Also, transporting cremated remains from, say, Florida to Michigan, is significantly less expensive than transporting an intact body.

"It's not uncommon for us to pick up cremated remains in the mail," Graylin says.

To save money, he's even seen families sell back a full-sized cemetery plot in order to pay for cremated remains to be placed on top of an existing burial.

Whatever the reason families have for cremation — cost, transportation, the request of their departed loved one, etc. — Cardinal Maida's pastoral letter reminds local Catholics that their bodies, like the risen Christ's, are meant to be with them eternally.

"Our future life with the Lord will also include our body, transformed and glorified," Cardinal Maida wrote. "Though our bodies are laid to rest in burial or cremation, we trust that they will be given back to us in a new form on the last day when Christ will come again in saving judgment for all who believe in Him."