What is the Catholic View on Cremation??



          CREMATION??

BURIAL??

 
 
 
 
 
          
 
 
 
 
 
   


 As most of the catholic children in my era, we were raised with the STRICT notion that cremation was WRONG! Why you ask?? well, First, As Christians our goal in our earthly life is to Accept Jesus in your Heart, Mind, Body and Spirit and lead a Christian life in the footsteps Jesus has set for us and you will be rewarded in Heaven with our Heavenly Father and not burn in the fires of Hell. This is noted Biblically multiple times. For Catholics when we recite the Fatima Prayer or the "Oh My Jesus" Prayer while praying the Rosary, O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to Heaven, especially those in most need of your Mercy.  Amen.
 In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we are also taught: ¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. To put it another way, Why wound we burn our Temple when our whole lives we are trying to keep ourselves from the fires of hell? There are some that will argue that in the Rev. 3:18-19 - Jesus refers to this fire as what refines into gold those He loves if they repent of their sins. This is in the context of after death because Jesus, speaking from heaven, awards the white garment of salvation after the purging of sin by fire (both after death).??

A change in this view, which was set by The 1917 Code of Canon law forbade a Church funeral for those who were to be cremated. But this was about to change. In 1963 the Vatican lifted the Ban against cremation. In 1983 a revision of Canon Law replaced the 1917 Code. The new revision allowed both cremation and burial as means of honoring the body of a deceased Catholic. With Canon Law # 1176: "The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the dead be observed; it does not, however, forbid cremation unless it has been chosen for reasons which are contrary to Christian teaching."
 
Currently, according to the UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS- 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. 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. The human body is so inextricably associated with the human person that it is hard to think of a human person apart from his or her body. Also, stated by the USCCB- Catholic teaching continues to stress the preference for burial of the body of the deceased. Likewise, the Church clearly prefers and urges that the body of the deceased be present for its funeral rites, since the presence of the human body better expresses the values which the Church affirms in its rites. Sensitive to the economic, geographic, ecological, or family factors which on occasion make the cremation of a body the only feasible choice, however, the Administrative Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops has recommended that the entire body of bishops that they request an indult from the Holy See permitting the presence of cremated remains during the full course of Catholic Funeral rites. Likewise, the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy has directed the Secretariat for the Liturgy to begin the preparation of additional rites and texts for the Order of Christian Funerals to provide for the presence of the remains of the cremated body.
 
For more info, feel free to contact your local Priest, or  visit  WWW.USCCB.ORG.

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