My Father-In-Law died last week, very suddenly. Fortunately he had talked within the past few months about how he wanted to be taken care of. And that included cremation. I did not know this, as a Catholic, but the church is now allowing cremation. In fact, he was a member of St. Thomas More and they have built a Memorial Garden and 'colomburium' (sp?) on site. The colomburium holds the remains of up to 96x2 people (or 96 couples) in a nice granite round structure about 6' tall by 10' in diameter. I went with his widow and my wife to the funeral home and the church to help take care of the arrangements. I was very impressed with the colomburium; it was maybe 10 feet from their outside "Stations of the Cross" as well as maybe 20 yards from a statue of Mary that my wife has pictures of herself after her 1st Communion there, Confirmation there and before our wedding there. I am no fan of cemetaries and only go there for funerals. But with what they had, I know we will see his place every time we go to mass there. So I am wondering, how long has the Catholic Church been allowing cremations? Personally that is how I want to go as well. I feel like I would be taking up too much space with my own funeral plot. Plus I have never wanted an open casket. And after looking over the prices at all, I was shocked how expensive everything is; the cremation was much more affordable as well. Still not cheap but much more affordable.
Right, because the Vatican is real hard up for money. But like jmatt said, it's been permitted since Vatican II.
His remains will be at the funeral mass, fortunately they have relaxed on that too. It sounds like they won't refer to 'baptism' but that's fine by me.
You write a big enough check, they will allow anything. Like annulling a marriage after 20 years? Bring back indulgences!
