Vatican releases new guidelines on burial rites

In the publication, which has been approved by Pope Francis, the Catholic church forbids Christians from scattering of ashes on land or at sea, Telegraph reports.

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Others include, burying the bodies of the deceased in cemeteries or other sacred places and placing a positive meaning on Christian deaths.

On the meaning of death, the publication reads, "Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning. The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the Church: “Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven”. By death the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. In our own day also, the Church is called to proclaim her faith in the resurrection: “The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live”.

Concerning the burial and ashes, the CDF says: “[The Church] cannot … 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.

In order that every appearance of pantheism, naturalism or nihilism be avoided, it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewellery or other objects."

In special cases where someone asks for their ashes to be scattered, the guidelines says, "a Christian funeral must be denied to that person".

This has caused quite the controversy with some agreeing, and others saying the church has no right to say this.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, falls into the second category.

“People memorialise people in all sorts of ways, I think what matters is that it respects the wishes of the person who has died and gives peace and healing to the people who are still alive.

Whether you want to have someone’s ashes put into a firework or scatter them in a favourite place or inter them in the ground I think that what matters is the wishes of the person who has died and the needs of the family and friends and those who are still alive.

I don’t think it is anyone’s role to second guess or interfere with that", he added.

What do you think?