IS THE CREMATION OF CORPSES ALLOWED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?

 

1. Introduction.

Since its founding and throughout its history, the Catholic Church has considered the practice of cremating the corpses of the deceased as something abominable. The very history of the towns proves that this practice was more widespread among the most primitive towns or human groups and not among the most developed ones. Despite the rectitude of thought in this regard, the progressive decline of Catholic awareness among peoples, the weakening of Catholic positions, the spread (increasingly widespread) of liberal and Masonic ideas, and the very attitude of men who occupy important positions in the hierarchy of the Church, give this question of morality a relevance that it has not had in recent years,

2) Etymological definition.

Cremation comes from the Latin CREMARE: CREAM.

Cremation comes from the Latin: In Cinis; in ashes.

It is therefore the violent destruction of the human corpse by means of fire or great heat. It can be a “religious” rite or a civil rite.

3) History.

a) The pre-Canaanites. Cremation existed among the Neolithic natives of the country of Canann. In a burial cave in the Gazer hypogeum, data was discovered that dates back to the first peoples who settled on the hill, in the course of the fourth millennium BC. The ashes found were recognized as belonging to human remains. They had been produced by a prolonged or violent incineration, to the point of not leaving evidence of the body but only a mass of whitish dust, or, having left in the black ash a remains of incompletely calcined bones. The number of charred corpses can be estimated at more than 100. It is the only example known up to then in Palestine.

 The Semitic populations that succeeded one another on the soil of Palestine and that has been called "canaeas", introduced and preserved burial as a mode of burial. Investigations have confirmed its regular persistence from 2500 BC to 600 AD. The Jews buried their dead and established cemeteries outside the cities. They buried the bodies of the enemies killed in the battles, even after the victory, as mentioned in the vision of Ezekiel (Ezek. 39. 11-13) is in accordance with the uses and practices in Israel. The same is read in Kings II chap. 18, 17 where it is said: "Then they took Absalom and threw him into a great hole in the forest, lifting a great heap of stones over him..." and in other quotes from the Bible this practice of burying the dead is mentioned, but not to incinerate or burn them. In addition, the Mosaic legislation even mandated the burial of the executed, whose bodies had to be buried the same day of the execution (Deut. 21. 22-23). The history of the Jewish people consigned in the Holy Books does not mention any case of cremation of bodies, except in special circumstances such as plague and war. The only case of cremation was carried out by the impious king Ahaz king of Judah who made his own son pass through the fire in honor of the idol Moloch (King. IV. 16.3). it makes no mention of any cases of burning bodies, except in special circumstances such as plague and war. The only case of cremation was carried out by the impious king Ahaz king of Judah who made his own son pass through fire in honor of the idol Moloch (King. IV. 16.3). it makes no mention of any cases of burning bodies, except in special circumstances such as plague and war. 

b) The Egyptians and the Chaldeans.

The Egyptians buried their dead in the Nile Valley, which is full of tombs. However, in archaic Egypt, the king was burned in his monumental tomb, but before burning him the monarch was buried for the fire to consume so that the god-king could more easily make his way to heaven where he was to meet those of his race.

According to a reference by Herodotus, the Babylonians embalmed their corpses with honey and took them to lower Chaldea, in order to reunite them, after their death, with their ancestors. The Chaldeans generally buried their dead. The rite of burying the dead was introduced in this region by the Semites, when they entered it.

c) The Persians.

These buried their dead, the royal tombs are proof of this. They punished the cremation of corpses with death and had special rules to purify fire stained with such an abomination. (they worshiped fire as a divinity).

d) The Greeks.

In early Greece, burial was the general and universally adopted rule for the burial of the dead, over a period of many centuries. The reason for the use of this mode of burial is that burial was more in agreement than cremation with the beliefs of the ancient Greeks with reference to the posthumous life.

However, in the time of Homer the rite of cremation was introduced among the Greeks parallel to that of burial; the two rites have simply overlapped and their simultaneous use is clearly attested. Furthermore, if cremation was unknown in mainland Greece, it was practiced there only exceptionally. Similarly, during the classical period, Greece continued to adhere to the practice of burial. The same law prescribed "to bury and put in the grave any corpse found accidentally."

All this is proven by the testimony of Herodotus (in his history, Erato, L. VI, by that of Plutarch (“Vita Liturgi”), Thucides (L. II), Euripides (“Suplc v. 17). that in Roman times that cremation exceeded burial to then disappear under the influence of Christianity.

e) Among the Romans.

Burial was the primitive rite adapted for burials and cremation did not appear more than in the advanced times of the republic (Plinio, 1.VIII, c. XLIV). However, this practice never reigned to such an extent that it completely supplanted burial, cremation was never applied to dead children. Finally, even under the empire, although cremation had ended up prevailing, burial was not totally excluded. From the Antonios onwards, burials by inhumation were more frequent. In the fifth century cremations had already fallen into disuse.

f) Among Christians.

At no time in the history of the Church did I ever accept the rite of cremation. Here a parenthesis must be made on this subject, given that the ecclesiastical authorities of our time have ignored the traditions of the Church as always, but also the magisterium of the Church and the Code of Canon Law, allowing, in some cases outside of those mandated by Canon Law, but have encouraged its practice and even allowed to keep the ashes of said cremations in the "temples", thus having large profits, closing parentheses. Let's continue with our theme, from its origin to consecrated burial or commonly called burial for the burial of their deceased used among the Semites by an inviolable practice. The first Christians collected, at the risk of their lives, the remains of their martyrs to bury them piously, the Roman Martyrology is full of these pious examples. The persecutors sometimes deliberately burned the martyrs and threw their ashes into the wind or into the rivers, an action by which they insulted the Church of the Triune and One God.

Of this absolute fidelity that the Church always testified towards the rite of burial, there is overwhelming proof, for the first centuries of the Christian era, in the existence of the Roman catacombs.

The Church always fought against the practice of pagan cremation, which was accompanied by rites incompatible with the Christian faith. During a certain period, apart from the one mentioned in the brief parenthesis, this impious practice was advocated, but Boniface VIII, through the motu proprios "Detestandae Fortitatis and de Sepulturis", decrees that those who will make such an impious and cruel transit suffer, by the action of fire, the bodies of the deceased, instead of depositing them intact in the grave they have chosen, WILL BE COMMUNICATED IPSO FACTO AND, FURTHERMORE, THAT THE REMAINS OF THESE CORPSES WILL BE PRIVATE FROM THE ECCLESIASTICAL GRAVE. “Ordinamus circa corpora defuctorum hujus modo abusus vel similiter nulatenus observatus (…) sed ut sic impie ac crudeliter non tractatur”.

It will be necessary to reach the times of the revolution of 1789 to witness a new attempt on the part of the followers of cremation. However, it was only in the last quarter of the 19th century that the idea of ​​cremation gained some consistency in Europe, thanks also when the Masonic societies obtained official recognition of this rite from the governments.

 

---TO BE CONTINUE.