Ashes to diamonds

“Ashes to ashes” is well-known to Christians as an admonition emphasized every year on Ash Wednesday to remind us of our mortality.

The phrase is, of course, metaphorical because human beings don’t start out as ashes, and an after-death, natural course of allowing the body to decay does not transform us into ash. It’s cremation that turns us into ash (sorry, I couldn’t resist the play on words).

In modern chemical terms, it would be so much simpler to say we start organic and end organic, and we could then push further and say let’s live and die organic.

But let’s return to the point about ashes. For all the power of “ash” as a metaphor, it seems the Catholic Church continues to have reservations about cremation, more than 50 years after it lifted a ban on the practice. The ban could be traced back to the early years of Christianity, when it was labeled a pagan practice, running counter to the new religion’s teachings about the resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul—doctrines that are based on the very core of Christianity: Jesus’ own resurrection.

Erroneous ideas

In 1963, the Vatican lifted the ban on cremation as long as the choice was not made through “a denial of Christian dogmas, the animosity of a secret society, or hatred of the Catholic religion and the Church.”

It would seem the Catholic Church is now comfortable with cremation, even building within churches columbaria or places where ashes of the deceased can be kept.

But last week, the Vatican released a new official document on cremation, “Ad resurgendum cum Christo” (To rise with Christ), noting how the practice had increased but with concerns that this was being accompanied by “new ideas contrary to the Church’s faith.”

In particular, the Vatican worries about “attitudes” or “rites” that “involve erroneous ideas about death. . .  as the definitive annihilation of the person, or the moment of fusion with Mother Nature or the universe, or as a stage in the cycle of regeneration, or as the definitive liberation from the ‘prison’ of the body.” In simpler words, the document warns against “pantheism, naturalism or nihilism.”

There are specific examples given about practices that might go back to “erroneous ideas.” No, for example, to ashes being scattered “in the air, on land, at sea.”

The latest instructions remind people that burial—the whole corpse or ashes—should be in a cemetery “or other sacred places” so relatives and friends can remember the departed. Cremation almost seems like a concession, a respect for the wishes of the dying as long as it is for “sanitary, economic or social considerations” and does not violate Catholic Church doctrines.

The Vatican’s disapproval of ashes being brought home is based on the idea that this limits mourning and remembrances to the “private” sphere.  A “sacred place” emphasizes community remembrance of the dead. Also curious here is a statement: “. . . it prevents any unfitting or superstitious practices.”

Filipino views

As an anthropologist, I’d be curious to find out how Filipinos, including the majority Catholics, see cremation and how much of the practice connects to Catholic doctrines.

Archaeological sites in the country have yielded much evidence about our precolonial burial practices. Interment of the corpse seems to have been the more popular practice, including mummification, and secondary burials (where, several years after burial, graves are reopened and the remains, now mainly bones, are reburied). In a few archaeological sites, there is evidence, too, of cremation, which must have been a tedious process.

Cremation was and still is the norm in many Asian countries, especially in Buddhist and Hindu traditions.  This should not be surprising since the body is seen as a temporary home with the “soul” (more a stream of consciousness) being reborn in one life after another.

In Indonesia, cremation continues to be unpopular because Islam does not approve of the practice.

Then we have predominantly Catholic Philippines where, even after the ban on cremation was lifted in 1963, many Catholics have been reluctant to make the shift.  Some years back when a financially strapped relative came to me asking for assistance to bury her husband, I suggested cremation. She broke out in tears, wailing about how cruel it was to subject the dead to burning, and then having the bones pounded.

There’s also been awkwardness with cremation in the Philippines because it challenges older practices. We have scripts mainly for burial in a grave, all the way up to the hysterical screaming and fainting. Now, with a two- to three-hour cremation process, mourners sometimes feel awkward about what to do: Pray? Eat? Crack jokes about the deceased? I’ve actually seen all of the above, which might explain why some families now ask that only close friends and relatives attend the cremation.

Since several urns can be put in one niche, there are also long discussions about whose urn gets buried with whom.  What to do with that polyamorous tito, or lolo and their wives and partners?

In general, our religious practices, even if labeled Catholic or Christian, may not always conform with official teachings. Our sentimentality will certainly make it difficult to heed the Vatican’s instructions on cremation.  We are a sentimental people, and I know of devout Catholics who bring home the ashes (but note Chinese-Filipinos consider this unlucky) or have them scattered in a place once loved by the deceased.

The Vatican document leaves no stone—or urn—unturned.  No, ashes cannot be divided and distributed even among family members. Neither can “they be preserved in mementos, pieces of jewelry or other objects.”

That presumably includes turning ashes into diamonds. The process extracts carbon from ashes (told you we’re all organic), which is then converted into graphite, which in turn is converted into diamonds. Prices depend on carats and color and go from $1,300 each (minimum four pieces) to $20,000. I can imagine our social climbers in the Philippines showing off a diamond ring and declaring, “This is my Lola” and going on to brag about the haciendas she had, until someone comes around displaying a larger diamond: “This is my poodle Fifi.”

There you have it. I can see why the Vatican is concerned.

(“Ad resurgendum cum Christo regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation” can be downloaded through the Internet.)

[email protected]