Vatican Has New Guidance On Cremation, Says Ashes Shouldn't Be Scattered

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Vatican has issued a new opinion on cremation.

According to the Catholic News Service, the Catholic church "continues to prefer burial in the ground" but also "accepts cremation as an option."

However, "it is not permitted to scatter the ashes of the faithful departed in the air, on land, at sea or in some other way, nor may they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects," the instruction reads. Also, "ashes of the departed in a domestic residence is not permitted."

"Burial in a cemetery or another sacred place adequately corresponds to the piety and respect owed to the bodies of the faithful departed who through Baptism have become temples of the Holy Spirit," it goes on to say.

"Caring for the bodies of the deceased, the church confirms its faith in the resurrection and separates itself from attitudes and rites that see in death the definitive obliteration of the person, a stage in the process of reincarnation or the fusion of one's soul with the universe," Cardinal Gerhard Muller told reporters Oct. 25.

The church first officially permitted cremation in 1963, but was not specific about what should be done with the ashes. Recently the Vatican was asked for further clarification, which is why it issued "Instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo regarding the burial of the deceased
and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation."

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