Kochi: A Church official in India says the Vatican instruction on Christian burial has helped clear certain doubts about the practice of cremation.
The Vatican move “has given more clarity to the topic,” says Fr Jimmy Poochakkatt, spokesperson of the Syro Malabar Church, the larger of the two Oriental Catholic rites in India.
The Church, based in the southern Indian state of Kerala, years ago approved cremation as an option. “The canon law allowed cremation and we had implemented that provision. But now the Vatican has given more clarity to it,” Fr Poochakkatt told The Times of India
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on October 25 released the instruction “To rise with Christ” reiterating the Church’s teaching that cremation, while strongly discouraged, can be permissible under certain restrictions – and that scattering the ashes is forbidden.
The document insists that ashes should not be kept in private houses and that the scattering of ashes on land or at sea is not permitted. The instruction also says that though it is not against cremation, it continues to recommend that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places.
The instruction says that, “In circumstances when cremation is chosen because of sanitary, economic or social considerations, this choice must never violate the explicitly-stated or the reasonably inferable wishes of the deceased faithful. The Church raises no doctrinal objections to this practice, since cremation of the deceased’s body does not affect his or her soul, nor does it prevent God, in his omnipotence, from raising up the deceased body to new life.”
“When the deceased notoriously has requested cremation and the scattering of their ashes for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied to that person according to the norms of the law,” adds the instruction.
Fr Varghese Vallikkatt, spokesperson of the Kerala Catholic Bishop’s Council that comprises bishops of Latin, Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Churches, says the Vatican has given an option by allowing cremation. “This was already a debate among us. The changing situation, lack of space and city life has made cremation a reality. Vatican has now approved it,” he said.
The Vatican document explains that after “legitimate motives” for cremation have been ascertained, the “ashes of the faithful must be laid to rest in a sacred place,” such as in a cemetery or church.
“The burial, the last liturgy for us, is an expression of our hope for the resurrection,” Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the congregation wrote, “and therefore the Church continues to teach that the normal burial of the body is the normal form.”
As the document explains, “By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity.”
She 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.”
Rather, burial in a cemetery or another sacred place “adequately corresponds to the piety and respect owed to the bodies of the faithful departed who through Baptism have become temples of the Holy Spirit and in which ‘as instruments and vessels the Spirit has carried out so many good works.’”
The Vatican originally answered the question of whether or not cremation was allowed in 1963, but with the increase in both its popularity and in practices such as scattering the ashes or keeping them in the home, it found it necessary to provide a new set of norms as guidance for bishops.
The instruction emphasized that “following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried.”
The Vatican document is significant for the Church in India which exists in a predominantly Hindu society that practices cremation and mingling of ashes in rivers.
Hindus believe the soul is indestructible. Death symbolizes the end of the existence of a person’s physical being and the star of a new journey for the soul. This soul then reincarnates in some other life form, and passes through the same cycle of taking birth, growing and eventually meeting death- only to begin the cycle afresh.
Cremation of a person’s dead body is therefore, supposed to rid the departed soul of any attachments to the body its previous residence.
A traditional belief among Hindus says that a person’s body is composed of five elements- earth, fire, water, air and sky. The cremation ceremonies of Hindus are directed toward returning the body to these elements. The body is progressively returned to earth, air, sky and fire by burning it under skies; and the ashes are respectfully collected and poured in a river.
It is said that excessive mourning over a deceased prevents the soul from being completely detached from its loved ones, and keeps it from undertaking its new journey- that of taking up a new life. Cremation (and subsequent ceremonies in mourning) helps remove most of those things that can act as a reminder for the person’s existence, and thereby also assist the family in getting over the loss.