What does the Church teach about Cremation? (with Dr. Scott Hahn)

Can Catholics be cremated? Is cremation a natural or fitting repsonse to a person's death? What does the Church say, and what did the Church used to say?

Katie Ascough and Dr. Scott Hahn discuss all of this and more.

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This is a short clip from Episode 4 of 'Colloquy' with Dr. Scott Hahn — you'll find the full episode on our channel.

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Called to More is a Catholic apostolate based in Dublin, Ireland. Our mission is to help you know your faith as a way of life and a relationship with God.

[ctmcatholic]

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[robertmeyers]

Every Parish and Catholic Funeral Home should put this 5 minute clip on their web-site to help teach the faithful to make an informed decision.

[marytygett]

It took me several conversations with my husband of 40 years to explain and convince him of this very thing . Our culture has become the throwaway society in relation to our beautiful human body . Thank you Dr Hahn for the analogies. God bless you 🌹☘️🙏

[carlarowland]

I love this. I used to think I wanted cremation. The more I understand my faith the more I don’t want cremation. I want my body brought to the Mass at my death and blessed.

[nancymoore]

Very good commentary. Dr. Hahn makes sense and it was great to hear all the history behind his comments.

[TuanAnhTPBQ]

The only reason that I and, I believe, many Catholics chose cremation is because of financial constraints. Here in the Bay Area I’m hearing that a burial plot starting cost is at least $10k.

[AE-jofy]

Awsome video! Utterly packed with very high quality information that is very well delivered! Thankyou for letting us know how the push for cremation is at the top of a real slippery slope to the heresy of dualism.

[feaokautai]

Praise God for his TRUTH in you Dr Hanh for your great reverence of the physical and spiritual body... the TEMPLE OF GOD.

[marzparker]

My precious mother passed away May 2020 at the start of the entire world lock down and had prepaid to be placed in the vault with my dad. We were unable to fulfill her wish logistically unless she was cremated. Now I mourn again for that beautiful woman who "housed" five of us. Hindsight shows many evil layers of this pandemic and what we were forced to endure during. I love and miss you, mom.

[rebeccaadams]

There is a problem though. I think full burial is best, but I am very poor and can't afford to be buried that way. I was able to make my arrangements for only $4000. I had to save and pay off one thing at a time. The first thing I bought was a burial plot in my parish grave yard. Then I bought a wooden box urn and ornamented it with a wooden rosary. Next I paid for a witnessed cremation, no extras, no wake services. Lastly I bought my grave stone on which are engraved the images of the Three Holy Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and below which is also ingraved the words "I BELIEVE!" I believe too, in what you are saying here, but I can’t afford it.

[caitlin]

This is such a good way to.look at it. Thank you Dr. Hahn!

[rtoc]

Plan to share this with my mom! Thank you for beautiful explanation. 🙏🏻

[kathymullen]

Dr. Hahn, I admire you so much! I understand what you are saying. However, I am one of those people who has started making plans for my end of life wishes. I wish to be cremated. My parish has a columbarium that I am making plans to be placed. I believed that it still is my body, just in a transitional form. From dust we came, from dust we shall return. On judgement day, I believe that God and His Almighty power will return my body to its wholeness. I don't believe in spreading ashes all over the place, or keeping it on the fire place. I am single, no children, on a limited income. The cost to bury someone is outrageous! We cremated my beloved mother and it cost us half of what it would have cost us had we buried her body and not her ashes. Now, I'm not saying we cremated my mother, nor do I wish to be cremated for financial reasons. But, it is another component. I want to be in the columbarium at my Catholic Church. That is my main reason. And I believe God will take care of the rest! God bless you, Dr. Hahn!

[lumpichu]

I attended a cremation only once, fortunately, the whole thing felt horribly wrong.

[rachelpops]

I wish families weren't removed from the process of dying with hospitals and funeral homes so much. Didn't families used to wrap up and bury their loved ones together just a few generations ago? I think Chris Stefanick had a video about this as well. Thank you Dr. Hahn!

[tesslively]

I agree with Dr. Hahn completely. As others have mentioned, it is the high cost of funerals and the desecrating embalming process that is the deterrent. I don’t want to be embalmed, so what is the alternative besides cremation? Can you just be buried without being embalmed?

[liliknoa]

Never will accept cremation . Give the body as it is back to God - return the gift.

[PRAEDICATORVERITATIS]

Can I have your permission to translate this precious video to Indonesian language and upload it on my channel?

[queenofhearts]

While I agree with the sentiment, many times it can be a financial hardship not to cremate. Full funerals can cost anywhere from $10-20 k and they want the money upfront. My children don’t have that kind of money and neither do we have that ready cash. We were able to cremate and inter my father-in-law’s ashes (with those of my husband’s mother) for about $1000. Fortunately, there was no need to pay for the wall space for the cremains as he was a vet. It will be the same for us.. no payment for plot needed. However, there is expense to get the body to the Cemetary which is several hundred miles away. My children are scattered across the country and would need to make arrangements to get here, too. It took a couple months to make all the arrangements for my husband’s father even with cremation. Travel was expensive, too. Thankfully we had enough credit to cover it all.

My parents were able to make arrangements well ahead of time and had the money to do it, so that would be ideal, but not a reality for the majority of people. There is no need for children to go deep into debt to bury their parents. Funeral home arrangements are as expensive as most weddings these days.

I hate to think of it in terms of financial and practical concerns, but it’s a reality. We hope to be able to arrange something before we go, but if not, cremation it will be. It’s not always a matter of “desecration” of the body. I firmly believe that if God can bring a virtually completely decomposed body to a glorified body, He can certainly do it from cremains, too.

[bridgetawak]

Thank you. I did not realise the spiritual harm in cremation. Very good talk and it makes alot of spiritual sense.