Shirley asked:Do cremated remains have to be buried in a Catholic cemetery?Fr. Dave Dwyer replied:"Cremation is allowed ... the Church has long practiced for centuries cremation and there was even a very intentional lift of any sort of non recommendation of it sometime in the 1960s .."Fr. Steven Bell replied:"...yes they must be buried, but not necessarily in a Catholic cemetery ... it has to be sealed in some way in a mausoleum or in the ground, but everything intact and in one place..."Fr. Dave Dwyer replied:"...some sort of public place, not interring in your back yard or in your living room is not prefered by the Catholic church. The idea being that anyone, not just the immediate family, can come and pray at the site of the remains of someone who has passed. it can be an opportunity for somebody to connect with God ... particularly for realizing I think some of the practical side of this many times there are occasionally rifts and things, and when somebody dies maybe it would be awkward for Cousin X to be attending the funeral ... but would genuinely like to and spiritually desire to pay their respects and pray at the grave site and they're able to do that at any time if it's not in somebody's living room.... but what the Church is fairly insistent on that we do not do what is somewhat common practice these days is to scatter the ashes and or distribute them in little sub containers to different members of the family and that sort of thing ..." Copyrights:© 2014 Busted Halo®Editor's note: This is an excerpt of the answer provided. For the complete response download the podcast. |  Click icon for archived podcast answering this question in its entirety. Show air date: February 19, 2014 Name of show: #391 Guest comments by: Fr. Dave Dwyer, Fr. Steven Bell Question appeared in show: 7:27 |
