SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN
By Pat McCloskey, OFM
No Funeral Mass for a Cremated Person?
I understand that the Catholic Church no longer opposes cremation. One of my friends, who is a nonpracticing Catholic, said that a friend of her son had his mother’s remains cremated. The priest at her church, however, refused to celebrate a funeral Mass, saying that the decision is up to the priest at a parish. hat priest is simply dead wrong! What the Church allows in general cannot be overruled by an individual priest. On July 30, 1997, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a decree approving new texts for a funeral Mass celebrated in the presence of cremains. That decree entered into force in the United States on November 2, 1997. Funerals are for the living as well as those who have died. The refusal you describe is pastorally insensitive and strikes me as an outrageous example of the clericalism that Pope Francis has been denouncing for the past nine years. Like anyone else, a priest may have his preferences, but those cannot be allowed to cancel what the Church permits. In a very restricted sense, this may be his parish, but it is not his Church. Who does he think he is? Was this the response of a servant leader? Those who asked for a funeral Mass with the cremains present had every right to do so. I am sorry that this person was refused this right. “Poor people, poor God,” Father Leonard Foley, OFM, a former editor of St. Anthony Messenger, used to say.
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Contact Father Pat
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On Forehead or on Top?
On Ash Wednesday, should ashes be placed on a person’s forehead or on top of her or his head? he 2000 Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal indicates, “The priest places ashes on the head of those present who come to him.” The biblical custom is to place ashes on the crown of the head (2 Sm 13:19 and Jdt 4:11). Placing them on a person’s forehead in the shape of a cross is a later and legitimate custom.
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Ethically Discarding VHS Tapes
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Recently, I discovered that my 200 to 300 VHS tapes can be disposed of only by paying several hundred dollars for shipping and disposal. Local recycling centers do not accept them. The tapes are considered hazardous because the Mylar tape is coated with toxic metals that will leach out and contaminate landfills. How morally obligated am I to dispose of these tapes by shipping them and paying the disposal fees? hat are the relevant local environmental regulations? Your state’s department of natural resources or environmental office can help here. You may, in fact, have more morally acceptable alternatives than your question suggests. My confrere Mark Hudak, OFM, advises consulting Earth911.com. If you cannot find a local place to accept the tapes, it offers an address where you can send those tapes for disposal without charge.
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10 • March 2022 | StAnthonyMessenger.org
STURTI/ISTOCK
Father Pat has been a high school teacher and communications director at his order’s headquarters in Rome. He has been a staff member at international OFM meetings in India, Mexico, and California. He reads Spanish and speaks Italian. He began working part-time at St. Anthony Messenger in June 1972, moving to full-time at this publication in June 1999.
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Pat McCloskey, OFM
