The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1894-07-28
ITS ADVOCATES.
The Objections Of the Church to
Cremation Faithfully and
Concisely Stated.
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF

Those Who Favor Burning TIE
Dead are Unbelievers in the
Resurrection.
A most opportune and interesting ar
ticle in Donahoe's Magazine for July il
"After Death: The Catholic Church and
Cremation by the Very Rev. John Ho'
gan, D. d., president of the Divinity Col.
lege of the Catholic University OF Amer.
ic0.
"Doctrinally, she has nothing to oppose
TO it, for no divine law has determined
the manner of disposing of the Dead
writes DIR. Hogan, after succinct re.
view of the funeral rites of the ancient
peoples, especially of the Hebrews.
"Practically," he continues, ''she is pre-
pared to admit it in cases Of necessity,
such as those of war or pestilence, when
large number Of decaying bodies may
become danger to the public health
unless they are reduced to ashes. We
may 60 farther, and say. that if we could
suppose in some remote period the neces-
eity to have become common, doubtless
the Church would accommodate herself
co it.
But in the present circumstances she
objects to the practice. Sheobiects, first
OF all, because she is instinctively con-
servative, and dislikes all unnecessary
changes, especially when the change
would be departure from what she has
practiced universally and invariably from
the beginning.
She objects again, because Whist was
only practice at the outset soon be-
came, and has ever since remained, law
the law of Christian burial, elaborate
in it's details as it is venerable in its an
tiquity -. If the Church had found cre-
mation universal in the beginning, doubt.
less she would have adapted her ritual
i. to it.; but she found instesd the practice
of burial more common wherever she
went and alone in possession of Gods
chosen people. The divine type Of
Christians, Christ Himself, had been
buried; 80 had the patriarohs, the proph-
ets,--later on the Apostles; in word, all
those to whom the Church looked back
with venerat,on. Thus burial naturally
became With her law, and around it
was evolved ritual, whose prescriptions
and prayers all imply the presence OF the
integral remains, and their deposition in
the grave.
Another primitive and constant devo-
tion Of the Church is elosaly yseonneeted
with 1.-THE. veneration OF relics. 1t has
been pleasing to God himself to preserve
miraculously the remains of many OF his
: chosen servants. Who in presence Of
such fact would think of reducing to
ashes the body Of any one dying in the
odor of sanctity? ),
But what swakens prir the op-
position of the Church to the proposed
change is the spirit which animates ite
most ardent promoters. However it may
he in individual cases, there can be 10
doubt but that the leaders and the great
majority OF those who favor cremation
are unbelievers, that for them the resur.
rection of the body is an idle fancy, its
present sacredness superstitious belief
and the reverance commonly exhibited
towards it a. weakness of which men
would do well promptly to diveet them.
selves. Cremation they consider most
helpful in that direction. Like the per.
eecutors Of the Early Christians men
toned by Eusebius, who burned the
bodies Of their victims, and, casting their
ashes to the winds, exclaimed: 'Now lei
us see whether they shall rise again,
many Of our modern oremationists seem
to hope that the visible reduction OF the
human body to its primitive elements
constantly carried out before the eyes Of
the people,, will gradually dispel from
their minds all belief in q future return
to integral human life, and ultimately IL
the Immortality Of the soul itself and
there is mo- doubt that the practice would
tend to weaken these convictions u
many. Beliefs are not 3 mere matter l' q
reason or argument. They are largely
influenced BY the imagination and 1 the Il Z
feelings. It is much eahier to picture e
oneself the return TO life ofa body alwayi
thought Of as living peacefully il y the Y
tomb than il one had seen it reduced e
9 handful Of ashes.
For all these reasons the Catholic olGitt
Church elings to her ancient custom q al1d ssl
objects to 9 change. Her mind has beer b q
manifested on the subject by several pro
nonncements which, combined show y u dis tliI
stinctly On what pliincip she proceedls s1l
HE 6rstt 2ll llers &, \
question ef ef | - = 1llpllI'' 1ns1Ia
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