Vatican Doctrine Office Lets Local Bishops Permit Families to Keep Small Part of Ashes

The Vatican has issued a new response on the handling of cremated remains, expanding a limited exception to the Church’s ban on scattering ashes. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued the response in December 2023, according to a magazine essay by Tom Nash published on Catholic.com.

The Church’s position on cremation has changed over time. For centuries the Church forbade cremation, in part because Roman authorities burned the bodies of Christian martyrs to prevent their bodily resurrection. The Church relaxed its discipline in 1963, provided that neither the deceased nor their loved ones chose cremation to reject the resurrection. In 1969 the Order of Christian Funerals made provision for the committal of cremated remains but not for their presence at a funeral liturgy. A 1997 indult from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, requested by the U.S. bishops, allowed the presence of cremated remains at such liturgies.

In 2016 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in the document *Ad Resurgendum cum Christo*, stated that the Church continues to prefer burial because it shows greater esteem for the deceased. The document said the Church raises no doctrinal objection to cremation in itself, unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine. It also reaffirmed that ashes must be laid to rest in a sacred place, such as a cemetery or, in certain cases, a church or area set aside for this purpose. The scattering of ashes and their keeping in mementos or jewelry remain prohibited, and the same burial norms apply to bodies donated for scientific research. Keeping ashes in a domestic residence was likewise not permitted, except in grave and exceptional cases approved under local conditions.

The 2016 document also said that when a person has notoriously requested cremation and scattering for reasons contrary to the Christian faith, a Christian funeral must be denied under canon law. Subsequent Masses for the repose of that person’s soul would still be allowed and encouraged.

According to the essay, the DDF’s December 2023 response responded to the growing practice of scattering some cremated remains in places beloved by the deceased. It expanded the 2016 exception, which had applied to the Eastern Catholic churches, so that local Church officials may now permit a family “to preserve in an appropriate way a minimal part of the ashes” in a place of significance to the deceased, such as the home of a surviving loved one. The permission is conditional: every pantheistic, naturalistic, or nihilistic misunderstanding must be ruled out, and the remaining ashes must be kept in a sacred place. Honoring the dead with care, as the Church frames it, is a lesson that the family’s grief deserves gentleness (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

The DDF did not explicitly address whether mortal remains may be disinterred to accommodate such a family request.

Source: Read the original report