The Vatican’s doctrinal watchdog has set out new guidelines for Catholics who want to be cremated, saying their remains must be stored in a sacred place and cannot be scattered, or kept at home.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), issued the instruction last week.
Ad resurgendum cum Christo (“To Rise with Christ”) was written after consultation with other Vatican offices and bishops’ conferences and the Eastern churches’ synods of bishops.
“Soon, in many countries, cremation will be considered the ordinary way” to deal with the dead, including for Catholics, the cardinal said.
Cremation, in and of itself, does not constitute a denial of belief in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, the instruction says.
Nevertheless, an anonymous burial or scattering of ashes “is not compatible with the Christian faith,” Cardinal Müller said.
In 1963, the congregation issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the Resurrection. The permission was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law.
Keeping ashes at home, Cardinal Müller said, obscures how the loved one belonged to the entire community of faith and not just to his or her closest relatives.
“Only in grave and exceptional cases,” the instruction says, local bishops may give permission for ashes to be kept in a private home.”
When asked if there was any way to rectify the situation when a person’s ashes already had been scattered, Cardinal Müller suggested making a memorial in a church or other appropriate place.
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