First a recommendation:
418. When the choice has been made to cremate a body, it is recommended that the cremation take place after the Funeral Liturgy. In this case, the Vigil for the Deceased and related rites and prayers, as well as the Funeral Liturgy are celebrated as they are provided in this ritual.
Most people assume this involves extra expense, “renting” a casket as well as preparation of the body for possible viewing. Then cremating after the funeral but before interment. One pastor I worked with always floated this option, but the families almost always chose convenience and a more common funeral home practice.
419. At the conclusion of the Funeral Liturgy, the Rite of Final Commendation and Farewell takes place, using the alternate form of dismissal (CF 437). Then the cremation of the body takes place.
420. At the Rite of Committal, the cremated remains of the body of the decased person are reverently taken to the place of burial or entombment and the alternate form for the words of committal is used (OCF 438).
421. When the Final Commendation is celebrated as part of the Rite of Committal rather than at the Funeral Liturgy, the alternate form for the words of committal is used.
Comments on any of this, especially the experience and/or the additional cost of conducting part of the funeral rites with a body and the Rite of Committal with ashes?
29 January 2011 at 10:07 am
I suspect the committal after cremation is a DADT kind of thing in many places. Do priests feel the obligation to make sure committal happens according to the rites of the Church?
We all know that the Church does not approve of scattering, but enjoins that cremated remains be interred with some measure of integrity like a corpse (a columbarium increasingly being featured in Catholic cemeteries, for example).
But what if the interment takes place in the form of burial (*not* “scattering”) at sea (ie. where the cremated remains are sealed in the container and deposited in the sea)? So far as I am aware, burial at sea was always licit in case of serious need, so would that also apply to its variation involving cremated remains? An open question.