Cremation: May a Catholic who provides in his will to have his body cremated receive the Last Sacraments and Christian burial?

火葬:在遗嘱中规定遗体火化的天主教徒可以接受最后的圣事和天主教葬礼吗？

Cases of Conscience from The Casuist

(Vol. II, Joseph F. Wagner Co., NY, 1908)

《卡苏斯学者》中的良知案例

(第二卷，若瑟-F-瓦格纳，纽约，1908年）

Question: Mr. B., a firm believer in modern methods of public sanitation, has made provision in his will that after his death his body shall be cremated. May he receive the Last Sacraments and Christian burial, and why is the Church so opposed to cremation?

Answer: All civilized nations, both ancient and modern, have regarded the burial of the dead as a religious rite. In ancient Rome, it took precedence over every other service, whether public or private. The Roman soldier could demand leave of absence from the army, not only to bury his dead, but also for the feast of the purification of the family, called feriae denicales, which occurred nine days after the burial. Not only were the last rites of the dead considered religious or sacred, but the burial place also, by virtue of the laws, enjoyed a religious character. It was quite natural, therefore, that in the nascent Church, the Christians, professing a different religion from the Romans, should also differentiate themselves from the pagans in the manner and place of burying their dead.

问题 B. 先生是现代公共卫生实施的坚定信仰者，他在遗嘱中规定死后遗体将被火化。他是否可以接受最后的圣事和天主教安葬，为什么教会如此反对火葬？

答：是的： 古今中外，所有文明国家都把安葬死者视为一种宗教仪式。在古罗马，它优先于其他任何仪式，无论是公共仪式还是私人仪式。罗马士兵不仅可以请假埋葬死者，还可以请假参加埋葬后九天举行的名为 "feriae denicales "的家庭净化节。不仅死者的最后仪式被视为宗教或神圣的，而且根据法律，埋葬地也具有宗教性质。因此，在新生的教会中，基督徒信奉与罗马人不同的宗教，他们在埋葬死者的方式和地点上也应与异教徒有所区别，这是很自然的。

The common practice in pagan Rome, at the beginning of the Christian era, was to burn the bodies of the dead. This had not been the ancient custom, even among the Romans, and at the dawn of Christianity there still prevailed among them the practice of cutting off a bone from the corpse, or rescuing one from the fire, in order to deposit it in the earth. The reason for this was that the burial of the ashes of the dead after cremation did not render the burial place sacred; it acquired a religious or sacred character and was brought under the protection of the laws only by the burial of some part or bone of the body that had not been cremated.

基督教时代之初，异教罗马的普遍做法是焚烧死者的尸体。即使在罗马人中，这也不是古老的习俗，在基督教诞生之初，他们中仍然盛行从尸体上割下一块骨头，或从火中救出一块骨头，以便将其埋入土中。这样做的原因是，火化后埋葬死者的骨灰并不能使埋葬地变得神圣；只有埋葬未火化的尸体的某些部分或骨头，才能使埋葬地具有宗教或神圣的性质，并受到法律的保护。

Each family had its own burial place, restricted to the parents and children and brothers and sisters, and a few intimate friends and favorite freedmen. The idea of a general burial place for all the inhabitants of a town or district was unknown to the ancients. The indiscriminate burial of friends and foes, relatives and strangers, in one monument where their ashes would be mingled together, was especially abhorred by the people and severely punished by the law. It was to be expected, therefore, that the Christians, who believed in the resurrection of the body as one of the great articles of the new faith, should have had, from the very beginning, a great religious care for the bodies of their dead and for all the rites attending their dead. They adhered to the more ancient custom of the Romans, as well as of the Jews, of burying their dead in the ground. They detested the practice, prevailing at that time among the Romans, of burning the bodies of the dead, just as they abhorred the other religious rites and practices of the pagans. Minucius Felix, in the third century, says that the Christians execrate the funeral pile and condemn burial by fire. “We follow,” he says, “the ancient and better plan of burying in the ground.”

每个家庭都有自己的墓地，仅限于父母、子女、兄弟姐妹、少数亲密朋友和喜爱自由的人。古人不知道为一个城镇或地区的所有居民提供一个综合的埋葬地的想法。把朋友和敌人、亲戚和陌生人不分青红皂白地埋葬在一个纪念塔里，让他们的骨灰混在一起，这种做法尤其为人们所憎恶，并受到法律的严厉惩罚。因此，相信身体复活是新信仰重要条款之一的基督徒，从一开始就应该对死者的身体和死者的所有仪式抱有极大的宗教关怀。他们恪守罗马人和犹太人更古老的习俗，将死者埋入地下。他们憎恶当时在罗马人中盛行的焚烧死者尸体的习俗，正如他们憎恶异教徒的其他宗教仪式和习俗一样。公元三世纪的米努修斯-菲利克斯（Minucius Felix）说，基督徒憎恶乱葬堆，谴责火葬。"他说，"我们遵循古老而更好的土葬计划"。

From the early writers and Fathers of the Church, we gather many reasons why the Christians preferred rather to bury the bodies of their dead in the ground than to burn them. Burning the dead was a pagan religious rite of the time, from which, as from all the religious rites of the pagans, the Christians wished to dissociate themselves. One of the central truths of the Christian Faith was the resurrection of the body. Cremation seemed to deny this doctrine. The Savior was buried in a tomb, from which He rose triumphant over death. The disciple desired to be buried after the manner of his Master, hoping to rise again in the body, like his Master, from the grave. The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body were two great beacon lights that illuminated the darkness and the sufferings of the first Christians. Burning the body of the dead seemed to them a confession of the total annihilation of the whole man. It shocked their sense of reverence and affection for the dead, but more especially their religious sense. And thus, from the very beginning of Christianity, burying the bodies of the dead in the ground became intimately associated with the Christian Faith, and all the rites and ceremonies of the Church that accompany the burial of the dead, the prayers of the Missal and of the Ritual, have grown up around and been developed according to the custom of burying the dead in the ground. When we have the bodies of our dead near us we are reminded to pray and offer sacrifice for them, we erect monuments over them that stimulate our piety and proclaim aloud our belief in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. The custom fosters reverence for the dead, whose bodies have been sanctified by so many sacraments. It is not as repugnant to our natural instincts to allow our dead to return to dust by the slow processes of tender mother earth, as to violently burn and destroy them by fire. These are but a few of the reasons why the Church, throughout the ages, has preferred to bury the bodies of her children in the earth rather than to destroy them by fire.

从早期的作家和教父那里，我们收集到了很多基督徒宁可将死者的尸体埋在地下也不愿焚烧的原因。焚烧死者是当时异教徒的一种宗教仪式，基督徒希望与异教徒的所有宗教仪式划清界限。基督教信仰的核心真理之一是身体复活。火葬似乎否定了这一教义。救世主被埋葬在坟墓中，然后从坟墓中复活，战胜了死亡。门徒希望能像他的主人一样入土为安，希望能像他的主人一样从坟墓中复活。灵魂的不朽和肉体的复活是照亮黑暗和第一批基督徒苦难的两盏明灯。对他们来说，焚烧死者的尸体似乎是在承认整个人的彻底毁灭。这震撼了他们对死者的敬畏和感情，尤其是他们的宗教意识。因此，从基督教诞生之初，将死者的尸体埋入土中就与基督教信仰紧密联系在了一起，教会中所有与埋葬死者相关的仪式和典礼、弥撒和礼仪中的祷文，都是围绕着将死者埋入土中的习俗发展起来的。当亡者的遗体就在我们身边时，我们就会想起祈祷和献祭

Cremation does not necessarily deny any truth of revelation. It does not necessarily imply a denial either of the immortality of the soul or of the resurrection of the body. Whether the body returns to dust slowly by the action of the forces of the earth, or quickly by the action of fire, is, in itself, a matter of indifference.

火葬并不一定否定启示中的任何真理。它并不一定意味着否认灵魂的不朽或身体的复活。尸体是在大地力量的作用下慢慢归于尘土，还是在火的作用下迅速归于尘土，这本身就是一个无关紧要的问题。

The Church permits her missionaries, as in India, where cremation is the ordinary method of disposing of the bodies of the dead, to remain passive in cases where they know that the bodies of neophytes are to be burned (Cong. de prop. fide, Sept. 27, 1884).

在印度，火葬是处理死者尸体的普通方法，教会允许传教士在知道新信徒的尸体将被焚烧的情况下保持被动（Cong. de prop. fide，1884年9月27日）。

But circumstances may add a very definite character to something that is quite indifferent in itself. And this is the case with cremation, generally speaking. The Church is cognizant of the fact that the cremation of human bodies today is not only a departure from the time-honored and world-wide Christian custom of burying in the ground, but that it is meant, as a rule, to be a protest against the Christian Faith. The promoters of cremation are endeavoring to rehabilitate the ancient pagan custom of disposing of the bodies of the dead in order to put an end to Christian cemeteries and Christian burial rites and practices, in order to destroy the powerful evidence they bear to the Christian Faith and the influence they exert in promoting Christian piety. By cremating the human body, they wish to signify the total annihilation of man by death. Thus cremation becomes, per accidens, a profession of heresy and an attack on the Christian Faith. Hence the Church forbids it. In particular circumstances, as, v.g., during an epidemic, the Church makes no objection to the burning of the human body. The only argument that can be urged in favor of cremation is the argument founded on the consideration of the public health. But the public health is already amply protected by the laws of the Church regarding the location of cemeteries and the manner of burying the body.

但是，环境可能会给一些本身很冷漠的事物增添非常明确的特征。一般来说，火葬就是这种情况。教会认识到这样一个事实，即今天的人体火化不仅背离了历史悠久、遍及世界的基督教土葬习俗，而且通常意味着对基督教信仰的抗议。火葬的倡导者竭力恢复古代异教徒处理死者尸体的习俗，目的是要终结基督教墓地和基督教的埋葬仪式和习俗，以摧毁它们为基督教信仰提供的有力证据，以及它们在促进基督教虔诚方面发挥的影响。他们希望通过火化人体来表示人死后的彻底毁灭。因此，火葬一不小心就成了异端邪说和对基督教信仰的攻击。因此，教会禁止火葬。在特殊情况下，例如在流行病期间，教会不反对焚烧人体。支持火葬的唯一理由是基于公共卫生的考虑。但教会关于墓地位置和埋葬方式的法律已经充分保护了公众健康。

The Congregation of the Holy Office has repeatedly, in the last 25 years, issued decrees prohibiting the cremation of the bodies of the dead. The following is a summary of these decrees:

在过去的 25 年中，圣职部多次颁布法令，禁止火化死者遗体。以下是这些法令的摘要：

It is forbidden for Catholics to belong to any society or organization whose object is the cremation of the bodies of the dead; and if such society be in any way affiliated to the Masons, its members fall under the ban of excommunication.

天主教徒禁止加入任何以火化死者遗体为目的的社团或组织；如果此类社团与共济会有任何关联，其成员将被逐出教会。

It is forbidden for a Catholic to order his own body, or the body of any one else, burned; a Catholic may sometimes cooperate, materialiter, in cremating the bodies of the dead, either as officials or as workmen, if such cooperation is not desired precisely because the officials or workmen are Catholics, and as a sign of contempt for the Catholic Faith and if the cremation contains no profession of Masonry.

天主教徒禁止下令焚烧自己或他人的尸体；天主教徒有时会合作，作为官员或工人，将死者的身体火化，但如果恰恰是因为官员或工人是天主教徒，不希望这种合作，并以此表示，这是共济会对天主教信仰的蔑视。

It is not allowed to give the Last Sacraments to a dying man or woman if he or she insists that after death the body shall be cremated; neither is it allowed to give the remains Christian burial, if it be known publicly that the deceased continued in this mind to the end of life.

如果逝者坚持在死后火化遗体，则不允许为其举行最后的圣事；如果公开知道逝者在生命的最后一刻仍抱有这种想法，则也不允许为其遗体举行天主教葬礼。

It is not allowed to say Mass for such persons publicly or in the name of the Church, but Mass may be offered privately.

不允许公开或以教会的名义为这些人做弥撒，但可以私下做弥撒。

It is lawful to perform the last rites over the dead, either at their home or else in the Church, but not at the crematory if it was not the will of the dead that his body be cremated, but the will of those in charge of the funeral, provided, of course, that all scandal be removed.

为死者举行最后的仪式是合法的，可以在死者家中，也可以在教堂进行，但不能在火葬场进行，如果火葬死者的遗体不是死者的意愿，而是那些负责葬礼的人的意愿，当然，前提是必须清除所有与死者意愿不相符的丑闻。

Again, it is permitted to give Christian burial to those who order that after their death their bodies shall be burned, provided they are ignorant of the Church’s prohibition; also to those who, after having made such provision in defiance of the Church’s laws, desired sincerely before their death to revoke the provision, but who for some valid reason were unable to do so.

同样，对于那些命令在他们死后焚烧其尸体的人，只要他们不知道教会的禁令，也允许为他们举行天主教徒式的葬礼；对于那些在违背教会法律的情况下做出这种规定的人，若他们在死前真诚地希望撤销这种规定，但由于某种合理的原因而无法这样做的人，也允许为他们举行天主教徒式的葬礼。

This is a short synopsis of all the decrees concerning cremation issued by the Holy Office in the last 25 years.

这是一份简短的提要，概述了过去 25 年来神圣院颁布的所有有关火葬的法令。

Mr. B., therefore, may not receive the Sacraments of the Church as long as he continues in his resolve to have his body cremated, because he is in mortal sin, defying a grave law of the Church. And if it be known by the general public that he persevered to the end in his resolve to have his body cremated, he cannot receive Christian burial.

因此，只要 B 先生继续坚持火化遗体的决心，就不能接受教会的圣事，因为他犯了弥天大罪，违抗了教会的严重律法。如果公众知道他坚持将遗体火化的决心，他就不能接受天主教的葬礼。