Catholic Cemetery

I had looked at a lot of different natural burial options, and so at Resurrection … it incorporates the Catholic faith view that you bury the remains … in blessed ground,” said Strong, 71, a member of St. Louis King of France in St. Paul.As a pollution prevention coordinator with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul, now retired, Strong consulted with various industries to reduce toxins in their work. With the funeral industry, she researched burial options to find methods that used fewer chemicals, fossil fuels and metals than prevalent current customs. Those options pose hazards such as formaldehyde from embalming fluids seeping into the ground, she said.Strong and her husband, Peter, 81, joined more than 50 other people at St. Peter in Mendota April 30 to learn about The Catholic Cemeteries’ natural burial process and site at Resurrection. Archbishop Bernard Hebda will bless the site, titled Gate of Heaven Preserve, on Memorial Day May 27. The cemetery set aside a section for natural burial, but it will continue to offer typical burial options.“Jesus was laid to rest in a shroud without embalming and/or a burial vault,” said Joan Gecik, executive director of The Catholic Cemeteries, a Mendota Heights-based organization that oversees five Catholic cemeteries in the Twin Cities. “This has been the way Christians have honored their loved ones for most of the Church’s 2,000 years.”Gecik said The Catholic Cemeteries researched doing natural burial and saw it as a response to Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’” on ecology and care for the environment.Natural burial uses a biodegradable container for the body, and the container goes directly into the ground without a burial vault. The body often is wrapped in a shroud and placed in a wicker or wood casket, or placed directly in the grave. At Resurrection, the body will be transported to the grave by cart, which people will pull, to reduce harm to the environment.In natural burial, family and friends of the deceased may have a private view...

They are moments not only to recall the heroic selflessness of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the service of our country, but also to recall more broadly our ongoing connection with those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith.It sounds a little odd in hindsight, but I always felt particularly at home in the parish cemetery where all four of my grandparents and two of my great-grandparents were buried, along with lots of aunts and uncles. My mom would always pack a picnic lunch when we would go to St. Adalbert’s cemetery to pray and to tend the flowers. We would wander through the cemetery carrying sprinkler cans filled with water, and my dad would pronounce all of the long Polish names along the way — defying the rules of phonics that I was learning in school — and telling us a little about each of the families and praying for them, especially those whose graves were marked by a flag. When I finally learned to read, my mom would have me sit on the headstone and read to my grandparents and great-grandparents. They never complained about my mistakes.Archbishop Bernard Hebda" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/thecatholicspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ArchbishopHebdaOfficialPortrait-SidebarFT-e1477630817918.jpg?fit=285%2C300&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/thecatholicspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ArchbishopHebdaOfficialPortrait-SidebarFT-e1477630817918.jpg?fit=285%2C300&ssl=1" class="wp-image-57423 size-thumbnail" src="https://i0.wp.com/thecatholicspirit.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ArchbishopHebdaOfficialPortrait-SidebarFT-e1477630817918-150x150.jpg?resize=150%2C150" alt="Archbishop Bernard Hebda" width="150" height="150" data-recalc-dims="1" Archbishop Bernard HebdaI first learned to ride a bike in that cemetery, and I would return each Memorial Day with red, white and blue crepe paper laced through the spokes, winding through the hundred or so flags that marked the graves of deceased veterans. I would later learn to drive a car in that cemet...