VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Victor Fernández has issued a document allowing for the communal storage of the ashes of people cremated, and for families to store part of the ashes of loved ones in a “significant place,” signifying a continued departure from the Church’s traditional opposition to cremation.
Published December 12, but signed December 9, the new prefect of the Dicastery (formerly Congregation) for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a response to two questions, or dubia, submitted on October 30 by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi – the Archbishop of Bologna and head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
The text was published first in a summary article on the Italian edition of Vatican News, rather than on the DDF’s website. It was approved by Pope Francis during a regular meeting with Fernández on December 9.
BREAKING: Cdl. Fernández issues dubia response allowing “communal” storing of ashes of those cremated, providing memory of each person is kept & also allows families to keep small part of deceased’s ashes in a “place significant” to their life.
He warns against “any kind of… pic.twitter.com/L2xQ994Vvi— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) December 12, 2023
Zuppi had asked – since it is forbidden to scatter ashes – if it is “possible to prepare a defined and permanent sacred place for the commingled accumulation and preservation of the ashes of the baptized, indicating the basic details of each person so as not to lose the memory of their names, similar to what occurs in ossuaries, where the mineralized remains of the deceased are cumulatively deposited and preserved?”
The Italian cardinal additionally asked if the family of the deceased could “keep a portion of their family member’s ashes in a place that is significant for the history of the deceased?”
To both questions, Fernández replied in the affirmative.
Replying specifically to the first question, he wrote how ashes could be mixed with other ashes, providing the memory of the individual’s names was not lost: “A defined and permanent sacred place can be set aside for the commingled accumulation and preservation of the ashes of deceased baptized persons, indicating the identity of each person so as not to lose the memory of their names.”
In issuing his response, Fernández drew from the 2016 CDF text “Ad resurgendum cum Christo: Regarding the Burial of the Deceased and the Conservation of the Ashes in the Case of Cremation,” issued by then-prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller.
READ: Vatican: Scattering ashes of deceased relatives remains illicit
That text stipulated that ashes must be kept in a “sacred place,” and ruled out the storing of ashes in private houses except in “grave and exceptional cases dependent on cultural conditions of a localized nature.” In such “grave and exceptional cases,” the local bishop would have to coordinate with the relevant bishops’ conference or synod in order to grant specific permission for the reserve of ashes in a home.
Even then, however, Müller’s note stipulated that “the ashes may not be divided among various family members and due respect must be maintained regarding the circumstances of such a conservation.”
Writing his response to Zuppi’s question about the storage of ashes, Fernández appeared to move away from Müller’s directives. He cited that as long as “civil norms,” rather than ecclesiastical norms, were complied with then the “ecclesial authority” could deal with requests from families to keep partial remains of the deceased in a “place significant to the history of the deceased.” He wrote:
In addition, provided that any kind of pantheistic, naturalistic or nihilistic misunderstanding [a phrase directly copied from Ad resurgendum] is ruled out and the ashes of the deceased are kept in a sacred place, the ecclesiastical authority, in compliance with current civil norms, may consider and evaluate a request by a family to duly preserve a minimal part of the ashes of their relative in a place significant to the history of the deceased.
Fernández did not explicitly deal with whether such a “place significant to the history of the deceased” would include the family home, but logically the wording of his text would include such a place.
Catholicism and cremation: A slippery slope
Cardinal Fernández’s dubia response appears to outline a more permissive approach to the handling and storing of ashes than was given by the same congregation in 2016, albeit under different governance.
Though the latest document was published without much fanfare, it has already received criticism for the theological and spiritual real world implications it will have at the local level.
Indeed, it marks a continued progression of wider acceptance towards cremation which has been practiced by the Vatican in recent decades.
Before the revolutionary changes made during and in light of the Second Vatican Council, cremation was forbidden for Catholics under Code 1203 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, in light of the Scriptural teaching that the body is “the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Viewing cremation as a Masonic development, the Vatican excommunicated those who attempted cremation, with Pope Leo XIII prohibiting public, Catholic, funeral Masses from being offered for those who wished to be cremated.
READ: US bishops condemn desecration of the human body through ‘composting,’ water cremation
The Vatican did, however, note that cremation was not against Divine Law.
But with the 1963 document Piam et constantem, the traditional teaching was undermined. While ordering that Catholics “refrain from cremation” except in cases of “necessity,” Pope Paul VI opened the door to allowing cremations under certain circumstances while stating that the “ecclesiastical tradition must be kept from being harmed and the Church’s adverse attitude toward cremation must be clearly evident.”
Paul VI’s concessions soon led to a change in Canon Law, with Canon 1176 of the 1983 Code stating, “The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.”
The CDF’s Ad resurgendum cum Christo continued to progress further away from the traditional prohibition of cremation. However, in all these documents, the Church “insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places,” with in-ground burial being the “most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body.”
The Church “cannot, therefore, condone attitudes or permit rites that involve erroneous ideas about death, such as considering death as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the ‘prison’ of the body,” the CDF declared in 2016.