Cremation: What Does the Church Think?

History

In ancient Greece and Rome, cremation or incineration of the bodies of the deceased was common. However, burial has always been widespread; it was practiced in Persia and in Egypt. In the Old Testament, on the other hand, there is no cremation rite. The Hebrews always used burial, this was due to their faith in the immortality of the soul. Mosaic law even ordered the burial of enemies.

The Catholic Church has always been very firmly opposed to cremation. The burial of the faithful deceased has been its constant and unanimous practice since its foundation, despite the risks taken by the first Christians to bury their dead, in times of great persecutions. Why did Christians categorically refuse cremation, despite the dangers?

Only a precept emanating directly from the Apostles, imposing burial, can explain this exclusive practice of the early Church. St. Augustine already stated this rule. A custom universally and constantly retained in the Church must be presumed to be of apostolic origin, that is, established by the Apostles. We are therefore in the presence of a usage that belongs to the treasure of Catholic Tradition.

The Church imposed burial on the barbarian peoples who converted one after the other to the Catholic faith. Under her influence, the use of cremation disappeared throughout Christian Europe; and outside Europe. In all peoples penetrated by Christian civilization, burial became the sole rite of funerals.

The French Revolution and its Aftermath

It was not until the French Revolution of 1789 that the demand for cremation appeared. But it was only in the last quarter of the 19th century that the idea began to spread in Europe, under the action of Freemasonry which created societies with the aim of propagating cremation.

In France, it was on March 30, 1886 that the deputy Jean-Baptiste Blatin, future grand master of the Grand Orient, had an amendment adopted according to which any citizen could adopt either burial or cremation as a method of burial. [1]

That same day, Bishop Charles-Emile Freppel, of Angers and MP for Finistère, spoke out strongly against this amendment in the Chamber of Deputies: “It is quite simply a return to paganism in what it does that is less moral and less elevated, to materialistic paganism.”

Imminent Danger of the Perversion of the Faith

Burial is one of those practices that can tolerate exceptions, unlike adultery or abortion. The Church may tolerate it in certain exceptional circumstances, in cases of extreme necessity and with a view to a higher good: during major contagious epidemics or in the event of a very deadly war in particular. But the exceptions are by nature exceptional.

The idea behind cremation is that of absolute and definitive annihilation: after death everything is over, there is nothing left. Freemasonry has perfectly understood that cremation was a way of gradually turning men away from the belief in the afterlife. A circular of the Freemasons from the end of the 19th century said:

“The Brothers should use all means to spread the use of cremation. The Church, by forbidding the burning of bodies, asserts its rights over the living and the dead, over consciences and bodies, and seeks to preserve the beliefs as commonplace, that are today dissipated in the light of science, concerning the spiritual soul and the future life.”

Ecclesiastical Legislation Condemning Cremation

This is why the Church, aware of the danger to souls, has vigorously spoken out against these anti-Christian sectarians and has shown the great importance she attaches to this subject. As early as 1886, Pope Leo XIII asked the bishops to “instruct the faithful about the detestable practice of burning human corpses and with all their strength, to turn away from it the flock entrusted to them.”

This decree was followed by other texts from the Holy Office constantly condemning cremation:

Decree of December 15, 1886, by virtue of which those who have destined their bodies for cremation must be deprived of ecclesiastical burial.

Decree of July 27, 1892, which forbids administering the last sacraments to the faithful who have given the mandate to burn their bodies after their death and who, having been warned, refuse to go back on their resolution.

These successive decrees were taken up and summarized in the Code of Canon Law of 1917, particularly in canon 1203 which declares:

§ 1 “The bodies of the faithful departed must be buried, their cremation being reprobated.”

§ 2 “If anyone by any manner orders that his body be cremated, it is illicit to execute that desire; and if this was added to any contract or testament or any other act it is considered as not being added.”

Canon 1240 §1 further specified: “Unless they gave before death a sign of repentance, the following are deprived of ecclesiastical burial: . . . 5. Those who ordered that their body be handed over for cremation.”

Finally, an instruction from the Holy Office dated June 19, 1926, again condemned “this barbaric custom, which is repugnant not only to Christian piety, but also to natural piety towards the bodies of the deceased and which the Church, from her origins, has constantly proscribed.” 

“Therefore, the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office exhorts in the strongest possible terms the pastors of the Christian fold to show the faithful in their charge that, deep down, the enemies of the Christian name only praise and propagate the cremation of corpses with the aim of gradually diverting minds from the meditation of death, of taking away from them the hope of the resurrection of the dead and thus of preparing the way for materialism.”

This instruction concluded by asking that priests never cease to teach these points, “so that the faithful turn away with horror from the impious practice of cremation.”

The Thought of the Church

The Holy Catholic Church has always surrounded the bodies of the faithful departed with respect and honor, as is clearly shown by the ceremony of absolution after the funeral Mass: the priest blesses the deceased body with holy water, then incenses it, going around the coffin. The Church charges its representative, the priest, to accompany it to the place of its “deposition” in the earth, where it will await, in peace, the resurrection of the body which will take place at the end of the world.

Indeed, the body of the deceased Christian has been on earth the temple of the Holy Ghost; it has been marked by holy anointings; it has received the Eucharist, the seed of eternity; it has participated in good works and has been the instrument of salvation. It would be very improper and disrespectful to treat it brutally by cremation.

Towards a Renewed Life

Catholic burial ceremonies show us that death is not a definitive and absolute destruction. According to etymology, “cemetery” means “dormitory.” In the cemetery, the deceased rest, in a particular sleep certainly, but waiting to be awakened for another life. The buried body, in fact, is like the grain of wheat that has fallen into the earth and decomposes: from there, by the mysterious action of divine omnipotence, life will spring forth.

Burial is in harmony with the dogmas of the last things, which it signifies well: the body “sown in corruption, will rise incorruptible” [2], and therefore it is deposited like a seed in the cemetery. But a burned body is like the grain that is cooked or burned: it will never give birth to a new life. A body reduced to ashes no longer expects anything; destruction seems definitive, there is nothing more to hope for.

Moving from the expressive symbolism of Catholic ceremonies to the negating symbolism of cremation is not without consequences. For centuries these ceremonies have shaped human thought about the afterlife. The passage from one symbolism to the other modifies thought and directs it towards the negation of any life after death. Man is only a bit of matter; he has disappeared forever; he only retains existence in the hearts of the living, and not in a real life after death.

Piety Towards the Dead

The Church's respect for the body of the departed continues with the decorated tomb, near which the faithful will return to pray. Burial is a hidden decomposition; everything happens underground; a veil is placed over the misery of rot and return to dust. On the other hand, it is progressive, it is done by the slow action of natural causes, according to the laws that come from God.

Cremation, on the contrary, is visible, one can attend it, and see the result in the ashes that are given to you. The truth of the destruction is cruelly put before your eyes. Moreover, it is brutal: how can a body that has been the object of affection, piety or friendship be delivered to such violent and unnatural destruction? Bishop Freppel called this “an act of savages.”

The practice of burial is also a reason for consolation and hope for those who remain. The cemetery where the remains of our deceased rest invites us to pray for them. But how can we pray before a container in which we have placed a few fragments of charred bones? Here again we see that the Church knows human psychology perfectly.

Finally, burial is in harmony with the Christian desire to conform in all things to Christ, and symbolizes the mystical unity of Christ and the faithful. It is the rite that He wanted for Himself. We are incorporated into Him; we must be assimilated to Him in all things. We are buried like Him and with Him. He is “the firstborn from the dead,” and we too will rise with Him.

Accepting Punishment

We know by faith that death is a punishment inflicted by God because of sin: “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” Man must humbly recognize that God is the master of all things, and submit to this sentence; he must allow this return to dust to be imposed on him. Through burial, this sentence is fulfilled as God wills: man undergoes in his body the return to dust.

In cremation, on the contrary, the deceased orders that his body become not dust, but ashes. It is he himself who imposes this destruction on himself, it is not God. He does not undergo, he commands. Whether we like it or not, the way of proceeding leads us to think that man does not undergo God's sentence: he escapes the authority of God and the duty to submit to Him.

As the Freemason quoted above wrote, “the Church, by forbidding the burning of bodies, asserts her rights over the living and the dead.” But today's man wants to be the absolute master. He gives himself the right to suppress life that has barely begun and to interrupt it when he wants life to end. Likewise, he also wants the power to destroy his body as he sees fit.

He wants to be master of himself not only until death, but even beyond death. Now, not having the power to restore life, nor even to oppose destruction, all that remains for him to mark his pretended power is to go further in destruction.

The Capitulation of the Conciliar Church

Unfortunately, since the Second Vatican Council, the Church has changed its legislation; it has broken with all its tradition, and now authorizes cremation. This was done under the harmful influence of Freemasonry, which is trying to eliminate everything that still gives our society a Christian character.

An Instruction of the Holy Office approved by Paul VI on July 5, 1963, but published only on October 24, 1964, limits the condemnation of cremation to only those cases where it is clearly dictated by an anti-Christian mentality.

“There has been a change for the better in attitudes [opposition to Christian customs, and the denial of Christian dogma], and in recent years more frequent and clearer situations impeding the practice of burial have developed. Consequently, the Holy See is receiving repeated requests for a relaxation of Church discipline relative to cremation.”

“From this it follows that the sacraments or public prayers are not to be refused to those who have chosen cremation, unless there is evidence that their choice was made on the basis of the anti-Christian motives just listed” [a denial of Christian dogmas, the animosity of a secret society, or hatred of the Catholic religion and the Church].”

This new law was inserted in the new Code of Canon Law of 1983 (canons 1176 and 1184). Since the progress towards denial cannot be stopped, a pastoral note from Msgr. Guy-Marie Bagnard, Bishop Emeritus of Belley-Ars, dated May 26, 1989, tells us that the celebration in church can even in certain cases take place after cremation, in the presence of the urn. [3]

What Is at Stake

What motive can justify the abandonment of burial in principle? The modernists lead us to believe that the only problem with cremation is the denial of Christian dogmas (dogmas of eternal life and the resurrection of the body), when in fact it is much more than that. It is a whole wealth of Christian practices that the Church is abandoning, when until now it had watched over them with jealous care.

The Freemasons ask for nothing else. The history of the Church is there to attest that the anti-Christian objectives of the proponents of cremation are only “a secondary motive for the ecclesiastical prohibition,” and that “the Catholic Church condemns cremation above all because it is contrary to the most ancient Christian tradition” [4].

The arguments that we have given in favor of burial show that it is false to say that it is an ecclesiastical provision whose propriety could cease. The dogmatic and moral propriety reasons that motivate the Christian practice of burial will always be valid. Moreover, the anti-Christian context linked to the expansion of cremation is a strong argument for the Church to remain in her unchanged tradition.

For 20 centuries the Church has always advocated burial, and she has even more interest in doing so today, faced with a world increasingly hostile to Christianity. By allowing cremation, the fruit of Masonic lodges, she is betraying her mission to protect her faithful from the contagion of error.

Conclusion

We end up thinking and believing as we live. However, cremation brings with it another way of thinking: man as master of himself until after death; man without an immortal soul, nor hope of another life after death; man reduced to matter and who, after death, has only to return to the  “great whole,” “mother earth,” and to “merge with it” as stated in a document published by the French Cremation Federation.

Year after year, we see the practice of cremation increasing and becoming commonplace. By 2030, cremations look to become the majority in France. For us, let us refuse this. Let us remain faithful to this pious custom of the burial of our departed, a custom both so human and so Christian.