Sri Lankans Are Allowed to Once Again Bury Their Dead

On January 8, 2020, the cremation of the bodies of the deceased who died of Covid-19 was made mandatory in Sri Lanka. A decree received favorably by the Buddhist majority, but which created indignation among the Christian and Muslim minorities (7% and 10% of the population), who saw it as a fundamental attack on the freedom to practice their religion through its funeral rites.

The Catholic hierarchy did not intervene at first, in a political context where relations between the Church and the State were already tense, with the Church accusing the authorities of culpable negligence regarding the Easter 2019 attacks that cost the lives of 258 faithful: “the cremation of Covid victims is a problem that concerns families and in which the Church does not wish to intervene,” Fr. Jude Krishantha, spokesperson for the episcopate, evading the issue.

On the other hand, the Catholic “base” did not sit idly by. Several priests, sisters, and lay people from various Christian denominations decided to launch a petition calling for an end to cremations: “our leaders are stealing all our rights, from birth to death,” denounced Noël Christeen Fernando, a religious sister from the Sisters of Charity.

Their efforts have finally paid off, on September 3, 2024, a new decree on “Burial and Cremation Rights” was signed by the Sri Lankan executive: from now on, “the right of each individual to choose between burial and cremation in order to respect their religious beliefs is guaranteed,” specifies the government note reported in The Deccan Herald.

In the event that it is impossible to know the wishes of the deceased, “the right to decide whether the body of the person should be buried or cremated will be entrusted to the closest relative of the deceased who will have to take into account what they know of the preferences of the deceased,” concludes the note.

Muslims are also not unpleased with the about-face of the Sri Lankan authorities who have decided to ease community tensions as the country enters a pre-election period.

In Islam, the practice of burial knows no exception: it is based on Surah 5, 31 of the Koran through which God is said to have shown Cain, through a crow scratching the earth to bury another crow, how to bury his brother whom he had just murdered… On the other hand, the Church demands it, except in times of war and epidemic when it tolerates cremation.

In Catholicism, cremation is contrary to the Christian tradition of burial, which is proper to instill in the souls of the faithful the great religious truths concerning the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the flesh, and the particular dignity of the human body, since it is signed with the seal of holy Baptism. A future article will develop this point which must be remembered and explained today.