Time was when Catholics simply didn’t do cremations, not least because it might complicate matters on the Day of Judgment, when the dead rise up bodily. Yet in countries such as Japan, cremation has long been accepted by the Church. We can rely on the omnipotence of God to reunite our atoms on the Last Day, no matter how our bodies were dealt with after death.
But the Church’s reluctant acceptance of cremations has not extended to some individualistic customs that characterise the Western way of death. Many people want their ashes to be scattered in their “happy place” after cremation, including windswept beaches where mourners may end up inhaling their relations’ remains.
