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The Funeral Mass is a final opportunity to commend the deceased to God’s mercy, and that’s why it must be done with reverence.
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Parish Funeral Homes
The following Funeral Directors are in a collaborative relationship with St. Finbar Parish.
Miraglia Funeral Chapels - 8519 New Utrecht Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11214 Phone: (718) 236-2442
Peter C. Labella Funeral Home - 2625 Harway Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11214 Phone: (718) 372-4242 -
Family Forms - Planning a Funeral
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Cremation
Proper Treatment of Cremains Previously banned for centuries because of its connotations with ancient pagan burial customs, cremation is becoming more popular in Catholic burial rites.
The Church allowed cremations in 1963, with the understanding that the body would be cremated after the funeral Mass. The Church subsequently relaxed its rules in 1997 to allow cremains to be blessed during the funeral. However, it is strongly requested that cremation occur after the Funeral Mass.
Under present canon law, cremains must receive a proper burial in consecrated ground, or be placed inside a cremain niche in a mausoleum. Scattering the ashes at sea or keeping them on a fireplace mantel are prohibited for Catholics. A Funeral Mass will be prohibited at St. Finbar Church if the final resting place is unknown.
“We would never keep someone’s casket in the living room, or dismember someone and scatter them out to sea from a plane. We would recoil because there would be something grotesque about that,” said Father Roger Landry, who encourages his flock at St. Anthony de Padua Church in New Bedford, Mass., to have a full-body burial.
“It’s important for us as Catholics to be countercultural in the way we are buried,” Father Landry said. “To be buried as Christ was buried is a value of great importance for the Church. A lot of times Catholics today are being infected with a pagan spirit that we are our soul, rather than a body/soul unity. The early Christians never cremated their dead, never, because that’s what the pagans did. Now it’s happening again.”
The Cremation Association of North America reported that cremations accounted for about 40 percent of deaths in 2010, and estimated that figure could increase to more than half by 2025. Reasons vary for why people seek cremation. It is less expensive than full-body burial while some people are attracted to the idea of cremation being compatible with an ecological worldview.
While the Church now allows for cremations, Father Landry is worried that its increasing popularity reveals that Catholics have lost an appreciation for the sacramental concreteness of the faith. “I try to stress to Catholics that a full-body burial is something worth paying for,” he said.
(adapted from Our Sunday Visitor)