Is Spreading ashes a sin?

The Vatican, though, doesn't condone the practice. Roman Catholic doctrine allows the dead to be cremated, but their ashes cannot be scattered and must be placed in a cemetery or “sacred place,” says a Vatican document approved by Pope Francis and announced Tuesday morning.

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In recent years, Catholics have increasingly chosen to scatter the ashes of loved ones – or keep them close by, at home – as a way to honor their lives.

The Vatican, though, doesn’t condone the practice.

Roman Catholic doctrine allows the dead to be cremated, but their ashes cannot be scattered and must be placed in a cemetery or “sacred place,” says a Vatican document approved by Pope Francis and announced Tuesday morning. The guidelines are not new: The Catholic Church has allowed cremations since 1963, and the rules have been part of canonical law since 1983. Publishing the rules now – a week shy of All Souls’ Day, when Catholics honor the dead – is a reminder to follow funereal tradition, Catholic leaders in Southern California said Tuesday. “Whether it’s a body in a casket or remains in an urn, the body is sacred because it’s part of the whole human being,” said Allan Deck, a Jesuit friar and professor of pastoral theology at Loyola Marymount University. “The appropriate thing to do with ashes is to bury them or keep them at a special place in the cemetery.” For most of its history, the Catholic Church prohibited cremations. One reason is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the idea that, during the end times, God will reunite souls with their bodies, the Vatican said. Since the church began allowing cremations – largely because of the cost and the environmental concerns of burying bodies – the number of Catholics being cremated has increased dramatically, Vatican and local leaders said. Physical burials are preferred. In Orange County, 39 percent of Catholics ask for cremations, said Ryan Lilyengren, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. Throughout California, about 45 percent of Catholics ask to be cremated, said Carlos Galindo, the sales manager for Orange County Cemeteries. For more than 30 years, some Southern California Catholic cemeteries have been offering burial niches to store cremated remains, said Michael Wesner, director of cemetery operations for the Diocese of Orange. “In Los Angeles, they were building niches since the early ’80s. We were a little bit behind the trend in Orange County,” he said. “We didn’t have any until 2000.” In recent years, the Orange diocese has created thousands more niches and above-ground mausoleum crypts at its four cemeteries to get better use of the land. Previously, families had the option of burying their loved one’s ashes in a traditional grave. “Some people prefer the idea of being cremated instead of being buried. They’re becoming more comfortable with the idea,” Wesner said.

“Society in general is becoming more ecological-minded. It’s less use of land.”

Virginia Soto of San Bernardino agreed.

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She serves on the bereavement committee at Our Lady of the Assumption Church and said most of the families she assists after a death opt for cremation. But she said there’s another reason besides the environment. Cremation, Soto said, is more affordable. Especially when it’s a sudden death, she added.

“I don’t think people think twice about it anymore,” she said.

Galindo said cremations can run from $2,000 to $2,500, plus the cost of a niche, which is also cheaper than burying a casket.

A full burial can run $25,000.

“With a burial,” Galindo said, “you have to pay for embalming, putting on makeup, clothes. And you need more room for a casket than to put an urn in a crypt.” But cremation’s rise in popularity has brought with it some trends that are contrary to Catholic dogma: For sentimental reasons, families often scatter their loved ones’s ashes at sea or on a mountain, or keep the ashes on a mantel. In Catholicism, the body – or ashes – must remain intact. Bodies not interred in a Catholic cemetery do not receive the traditional rites. That’s why Soto and others think it is a good idea to have guidelines. Soto said remains should be kept in a sacred place because “they’re still human.” For Darlene Arevalo, 36, cremation still goes against her upbringing. “My grandmother always said, ‘If God intended for us to be burned, this wouldn’t have been an issue.’” She was visiting her mother’s grave Tuesday with red roses and a birthday balloon at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.

“It doesn’t feel natural to me.”

Burying a loved one in a cemetery, though, can be difficult for some people. “It’s hard to let go,“ said Mary Ellen Lohnes, an outreach coordinator for the Orange diocese. That’s why she is leading the diocese’s new approach to getting people to follow church doctrine: better late than never. In November, the diocese will hold three Remembrance Ceremonies, during which families who have kept a family member’s ashes for more than a year can sign up to have the urns interred in a crypt for free at one of three Catholic cemeteries. Each cemetery has set aside a crypt that can hold 200 urns, and during the ceremonies, a shortened version of the rites will be performed.

Bishop Kevin Vann will attend one.

“It will help families that either didn’t want to separate from their loved ones or couldn’t afford it,” Lohnes said.

“It‘s emotional.”

Staff writer Alejandra Molina contributed to this report.

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