Homily Follow-up: Information about Funerals

Fr. Maderak has tackled some difficult but important material in the series of homilies for November.  Today's homily spoke the technicalities of preparation for death as well as information on Funerals, Burial and Cremation.   

Cremation is now permitted by the Catholic Church but there are certain guidelines that must be followed in order to ensure the dignity of the body.   Every human being has inherent worth simply by being created in the image of Christ from the time of conception- regardless of stage of development, capabilities, illness, none of this matters when it comes to a person's worth.  Each human is to be treated with the dignity they are owed in being a person, an integration of body and soul.  While death is the separation of body and soul, it is important that the body must be afforded every dignity in its treatment, even though it no longer has life.  This is why it is so very important to be aware of what is permitted with regards to cremation and final resting places.  

In 2017, we handed out copies of Ad resurgendum cum Christo, an instruction from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith regarding burial and cremation.  Please read  Ad resurgendum cum Christo if you have not done so in the past and even if you have read it, it is an important document to re-read. 

Please also visit the Archdiocese webpage on FUNERALS linked from our webpage which also has a lot of information on funerals and Catholic Cemeteries, complete with references to Canon Law and other links.  

While this is a difficult and very often uncomfortable topic to address, it is also very important to have a plan in place for we do not know when our time may be.