Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Catholic cemetery manager welcomes new instructions on cremation

byEmilie Ng
2 November 2016 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA
columbarium

Cremation changes: The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued new instructions for cremations. Photo: Stock image.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
columbarium
Cremation changes: The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued new instructions for cremations. Photo: Stock image.

NEW instructions on the cremation of Catholics outlining an end to scattering ashes or keeping them in domestic residences are “not new information” to a Brisbane cemetery manager.

David Molloy has been the manager of Nudgee Cemetery since 2003, 40 years after the Holy See approved cremation as an option for conserving the remains of the dead.

He said as a cemetery worker he “and others in the industry” already understood the importance of the distinctions set out in the new instructions set out by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith issued on October 15.

“The Vatican’s letter is not new information,” Mr Molloy said.  

The congregation confirmed the Church’s acceptance of cremation as a valid alternative to burial as long as the deceased did not intend to deny Christian dogmas, and added a new obligation to conserve ashes in a sacred place.

Practices that will no longer be permitted under the new instructions were scattering ashes in the air, on land or at sea, conserving ashes at home, or dividing remains among family members.

“It prevents the faithful departed from being forgotten, or their remains from being shown a lack of respect, which eventuality is possible, most especially once the immediately subsequent generation has, too, passed away,” the congregation’s instructions said.

Almost 80 per cent of people living in metropolitan Brisbane and about 50 per cent of Catholics were choosing cremation, Mr Molloy said.

Mr Molloy said the emphasis on placing ashes in a sacred space as opposed to a domestic residence emphasised a reverence and respect for the body.

He said it would also place the importance on visiting a resting place, a ritual as important as a funeral or service memorial.

Related Stories

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

Life ‘is always sacred and inviolable’, Pope Francis says

“A place to visit, a memorial (plaque or headstone) is the long-term tribute to a person’s life and should never be under-estimated,” Mr Molloy said.

“It is not so much how often we visit, but that we have the opportunity to visit when we feel the need to reflect and pray for that person.

“I would say that not a week goes by where we have a non-family visiting someone’s grave.  

“Many people don’t realise just how many visits their family member receives by folk other than family.

“The disappointment of visitors when there is no memorial to the person they have come to visit and remember can hinder the journey of their grief.  

Brisbane archdiocese’s first crematorium was built in 2014 at Nudgee Cemetery.

By Emilie Ng

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Taxi driver who saved 11 people from Moorooka bus fire is a Catholic father

Next Post

Dreamworld tragedy: Police chaplains offered a listening ear during the worst

Emilie Ng

Emilie Ng is a Brisbane-based journalist for The Catholic Leader.

Related Posts

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan
Vatican

Pope prays for victims of devastating earthquake in Afghanistan

23 June 2022
Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute
Hot Topics

Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

22 June 2022
Life ‘is always sacred and inviolable’, Pope Francis says
Vatican

Life ‘is always sacred and inviolable’, Pope Francis says

23 May 2022
Next Post
Vigil at Dreamworld

Dreamworld tragedy: Police chaplains offered a listening ear during the worst

John Paul II with students in a Melbourne classroom

Young Australians express shock at sudden closure of pontifical institute in Melbourne

mission Mass

Catholic school students recall plight in Cambodia at special Mass

Popular News

  • Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Australian Plenary Council aims to avert Church ‘moment of crisis’

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Fr El Louie Jimenez ordained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship
Education

Future First Nations teachers honoured with Rome scholarship

by Hannah Kennelly
2 July 2022
0

YOUNG Aboriginal and South Sea Islanders education students, Jedda Ellison and Hayden Kubler have been awarded the...

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

Marymount College claims historic girls’ rugby league Confraternity title

2 July 2022
Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

Sunnybank’s ninth Multicultural Mass unites 16 languages in prayer

1 July 2022
Evarist D’Souza

Archbishop Coleridge unveils new cross at Banyo church

1 July 2022
Netball Superstar: St John Fisher student Jayden Molo.

St John Fisher College student selected for the Australian Netball U17 Squad

1 July 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping