moogle wrote:

I'm a UK Catholic.
The bishops of england and wales have sent out a letter stating that the ashes from cremations should always be given a proper burial in a graveyard with a priest attending.

With actual burial plots being hard to come by ... I feel it is more offensive for grieving members to have to hold on to remains until a date far in the future when a burial may be able to take place than to have them scattered in the cremation gardens with the right intent.

I recently heard a priest discussing this issue on a Catholic radio station called Relevant radio.

www.relevantradio.com

Someone had called in and was asking about the proper ways of burial, and or disposal of ashes. I heard some very interesting things that never really crossed my mind before, while I was listening to this particular program. it seems that cremations came about from rich, well to do upper class nonbelieving folks. these people didn't believe in God & for whatever reason decided to be cremated. I think that its a good idea that the Catholic church speaks out on this, & I hope that this matter is discussed in the American Catholic church some time soon. I live in the south subarbs of Chicago and it has been the latest fad for people to take the remains of their loved ones and toss them out at Wrigley field & other places as well. I believe that the death of a human being should still have some dignity to it, & I don't think that people should be spreading ashes at Baseball parks, shooting peoples ashes into outerspace and other silly things. the Catholic church considers the funeral & burials of people to be a Sacred thing (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and I would agree with that whole heartedly. I think that this is a very interesting topic for a thread, and I would love to have the Catholic church speak out on this matter and clarify their teachings on this issue.