More heartbreak - Church edict on cremated ashes

JUST when Catholics began to warm to Pope Francis, seeing in him a pastoral pontiff in tune with modern life, it emerges that he has approved an instruction concerning the dear departed that is certain to bring heartbreak to some devout members of the Church.

The Vatican has issued instructions that cremated ashes must not be scattered but buried on sacred ground. Acknowledging that an increasing number of Catholics were opting for cremation rather than burial, the church’s doctrinal and disciplinary body warned against “new ideas contrary to the church’s faith”.

The instruction resonates with medieval Christianity when bones, fingernails and even heads of saints were preserved, bought and sold, stolen and cherished.