Many, many people can't afford burial costs these days. They are out of sight.
"Many, many people can't afford burial costs these days. They are out of sight."
They don't have to be out of sight.
There are reasonably prices coffins and cemetaries available.
There are Catholic burial societies who help people in need who cannot afford to bury their dead.
My pastor will make appeals from the pulpit for such funds and I have witnessed those donations in action.
I'd rather be buried unembalmed in a pine box with a headstone consisting of a single fired brick than be burnt like a pagan.
No Catholic parish should allow one of their own to be incinerated solely due to lack of funds.
Huh? How is cremation any less expensive? And, BTW, what is so expensive about a funeral? There are many ways to keep expenses to a minimu.
Well cremation's not much cheaper. My mother requested cremation...I think she did so because she wanted to spare us some expense. She and my dad had been very ill for a long time and no longer had insurance. I paid nearly $8000 for the viewing and funeral because I wanted a real viewing and the body present at the funeral. That required embalming. I also paid about 700 dollars to rent a casket for the viewing and the funeral. The Columbarium cost me $1749.00.
The cremation itself was only $1000 but all in all, it's no bargain. The best idea is to prepay as much as you can. When my mother in law died she had pre planned and pre payed for everything...right down to the music at her funeral. It was a great relief to my wife and brother in law to not have to make a lot of decisions wondering 'what would mother want me to do?'