Italian bishops forbid scattering of ashes after cremation
March 30, 2012
In new guidelines for funerals and burials, the Italian bishops’ conference has said that the scattering of ashes of the deceased is not allowed.
The revised funeral rites, released on March 31, said that although civil law allows for the scattering of ashes, that practice raises “considerable doubts as to their coherence to Christian faith.”
This instruction is placed in an appendix to the new book of funeral rites, a spokesman for the Italian bishops’ conference explained, because the Church, “although she does not oppose the cremation of bodies, when not done in odium fidei, continues to maintain that the burial of the dead is more appropriate, that it expresses faith in the resurrection of the flesh, nourishes the piety of the faithful, and favors the recollection and prayer of relatives and friends.”
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