Washington, Colorado and Oregon are now among the U.S. states that have legalized the process of converting human bodies into soil, a procedure the Catholic Church said fails to show “respect for the body of the deceased.” Meanwhile, California and New York are seeking to be next in line to allow human composting.
The process for composting a body was introduced by the Seattle-based company Recompose, which is now open for business after the state of Washington legalized the process in 2019. Colorado was the second state to legalize it, followed by Oregon, when Gov. Kate Brown in mid-June signed House Bill 2574 into law.
Here’s how it works: A dead body is broken down through a process known as Natural Organic Reduction by placing the body in a reusable vessel, covering it with wood chips and aerating it, which creates an environment for microbes and essential bacteria. The body, over a span of about 30 days, is fully transformed into soil.
This process is seen as a more sustainable alternative to cremation, which requires fossil fuels and releases carbon dioxide. Proponents say families can use the soil to plant a tree or a garden to honor their loved ones. In public testimony, the Oregon bill garnered widespread support.
Rory Cowal, of Portland, Oregon, was one of those who testified in favor of human composting, saying, “It provides a profound and spiritually grounded close to a life story: a return to the land that sustained us in life.”
In California, where the massive number of COVID-19 deaths inundated funeral homes and even led to Los Angeles County’s suspension of air quality regulations on cremation, State Assemblymember Cristina Garcia, a Democrat, hopes the Golden State becomes the next place to legalize the process of converting bodies into soil.
“(The pandemic situation) is another sad reminder that we must legalize a more environmentally friendly option as soon as possible,” she said in a statement. It’s Garcia’s second attempt in passing this kind of legislation. Her bill remains in a Senate committee, with an upcoming hearing scheduled July 14.
….The California Catholic Conference came out against the proposed measure last year.
“We believe that the ‘transformation’ of the remains would create an emotional distance rather than a reverence for them,” Steve Pehanich, a spokesperson for the California Catholic Conference, told Religion News Service in 2020….
The above comes from a July 12 story published by the Religion News Service.
Just a logical progression of the prevailing progressive utilitarian ideology that is ultimately traced to Karl Marx. Human dignity only is a thing insofar as our lives serve some arbitrary purpose as defined by whomever is in control. It’s why Christians and LGBTQ etc. will be persecuted side by side in the future. It’s just that Christians know who our persecutors will be. Those currently benefiting from the Pride agenda are still in the dark about that…
“Soylent Green is People”.
Eco-fascists are running amok and making everything about saving the planet. Your death, and millions more, is what they want. How far will they go until you resist?
I’d be OK with it as long as they put the air holes and wood chips in my coffin, and make sure I’m dead first.
What a tragic, degrading, dehumanizing concept– atheist to the core. Victims of horrific human atrocities have often been dismembered or cremated, and buried in unmarked graves. Hitler cremated all of his Jewish victims, and the crematoriums at his concentration camps spewed the smoky ashes of human remains 24/7 into the air, during cremations, poisoning the surrounding forests. Remember when everyone knew that cremation was forbidden by the Catholic Church– banned for centuries, until they changed that teaching, in 1963? Remember when the Church taught about the Resurrection of the Body– and everyone could easily define that Catholic teaching? The dogma is contained in both the Nicene Creed, recited at Mass, and the Apostles’ Creed, recited when praying the Rosary. The Apostles’ Creed is always memorized, along with other Rosary prayers. The Catholic Church needs to begin a strong catechetical program worldwide, as they used to do– and teach everyone the Faith– how to live, and what to do, when a loved one is about to pass away. Very important.
Laudato Si
It is a disgusting, disrespectful process. That said, what the funeral industry does to the body with embalming isn’t cool either, but at least it shows intended respect for the person even if it is awful. .
I am a different “Anon.” Why do you think embalming is awful? I know that many religious orders of contemplative monks and nuns do not embalm their deceased members, and their burials are simple, in pine caskets. But what exactly do you think is wrong with ermbalming, for deceased Catholics? The deceased usually have several days of a Rosary service, maybe a Wake, and then, the church Requiem Mass– and then, a burial, following the Mass. A decaying body would not work, for a few days or longer, of these religious events! And family members would be hurt a great deal. The body of the deceased needs dignity.
As a war veteran who has witnessed bodies of my military brethren become literally nothing but bits and pieces due to enemy fire and explosions, I often wondered about the concept of our bodies being resurrected during the Second Coming of Christ. Though I acknowledge that there is some validity to the concept of a deceased body having some value, let us bear in mind that the deceased is already disposed of a soul, and the social need to bury bodies after ritualistic efforts to create a minimal decomposition process over time is truly just a vainglorious attempt for us to see our dearly departed as if death had not overtaken them. Again, my parents died within a year of each other, declared before that they wished to be cremated and to have their remains together at the local Catholic cemetery. Mom passed first, and Dad had her urn in his house so that he could deal with her passing and remember her. A year later, almost to the day, he too passed peacefully. Once cremated, I asked the cemetery manager about having their ashes mixed, just out of curiosity. I was then lectured for some time about the sanctity of the body, how mixing was not allowed because of health issues, etc. I asked about my dead military friends – their remains were scattered, and though some recovered, by and large none had complete bodies to bury. Does this mean that God, who created the universe, created us, etc., could not, when the time comes to resurrect us body and all into heaven, cannot somehow recreate our bodies from wherever they are, or in whatever condition they might be when that day comes? No one could answer – one person suggested that God wanted us to be buried as a whole body so that when resurrection came, God could “find us whole and ready”. I asked about decomposition – over time, bodies decompose, and are technically no longer “whole”. Would God then not allow their resurrection? Of course not! So this notion that somehow decomposition (scientifically a fact, not aligned to any liberal or atheistic view) is part of God’s plan. I tend to think that those who think that having one’s body cremated or in this case regenerated into a compost so that the nutrients in our bodies can return to nourish the Earth is akin to Hell’s fire, or that somehow their body, devoid now of their soul, is somehow still going to have some effect on how we are going to look in our post-death life. How vain that we would even consider that our current beauty is somehow part of what we will be when we pass… I realize that many of the readers here are rather dogmatic and conservative, and that anything not in keeping with their worldview must, by default, be satanic or at least atheistic and liberal. I wonder – will God ask you about all this judging of others? Remember, judge not for fear that you will judged…
Many crematoriums have been sued for carelessly mixing the ashes of people from different families, so most are very careful not to do that now, thus most crematoriums will not mix ashes even if family members request it. Around thirty years ago when I first got cancer, I went to the office of a Catholic cemetery to see about burial plans. All I wanted was a simple pine, or wooden coffin, that would later dissolve into the ground. it was impossible to have such a burial in my area. They only offered an expensive redwood coffin with metal in the construction.
Michael, you should go talk to a good priest about this. Christians are not like atheists. We believe that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our Sacraments, starting at Baptism, sanctify us, body and soul, and prepare us for Heaven. A baptized, practicing Catholic in good standing with the Church, should be particularly given a proper Catholix Requiem Mass and burial in a blessed, consecrated Catholic cemetery. Masses and prayers are said at Catholic cemeteries regularly, also, by priests, for the deceased. In the case of a horrific situation of death, human remains may be cremated, and the urn may be placed in a niche at the Catholic cemetery, with final blessings by a priest — after the Requiem Mass. It is important to honor Catholics who died in battle, serving in the military, and military veterans who have died– place them in a Catholic cemetery (casket or urn) with a little inscription on the gravestone about their military service, possible heroism, and death for their country in battle, if applicable. They must not be forgotten! Scattering of ashes, or mixing them, or use of them in decorative jewelry and remembrance objects– is prohibited by the Church. Keeping the ashes in an urn at home is likewise forbidden. Respect must be given, with a proper funeral Mass and Catholic burial (or an urn placed in a niche) with final prayers by the priest– in a Catholic cemetery.
One can order wooden caskets from certain abbeys in the United States, but I have no idea how much it would cost to have one shipped for a funeral. Sometimes a Catholic is buried in a non denominational cemetery because a Catholic cemetery is not close to where the remaining family is living, but a priest can serve a requiem and/or a Rosary and bless the burial site. That was the case with one of my cousins.
Sign me up
There are many Catholic saints who have died, miraculously leaving behind incorruptible bodies with a pleasant aroma– and little or no decay at all. There are even incorruptible bodies of Saints who suffered terrible illnesses, which ravaged their body, prior to death– such as St. Bernadette of Lourdes. I would love to visit the holy chapel in Paris, where St. Catherine Laboure (of the Miraculous Medal) had apparitions of Our Blessed Mother, and view her incorruptible body! I have worn her Miraculous Medal, lifelong! LOVE the “Cinderella”-type coffins, in which the incorruptible and partially-incorruptible bodies of Saints are laid! Among the incorruptible Saints: St. John Vianney, St. John Bosco, St. Vincent de Paul, and Pope St. John XXIII.
There are also many incorruptible Eastern Orthodox holy Saints, who have all worked great miracles after their deaths.
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Catholics are very special to God, and should never think and behave as common, modernistic, secular atheists do! A very good explanation of the Christian dogma of the
Resurrection of the Body can be easily found in I Corinthians, in the entire 15th Chapter. St. Paul explains all about the death and Resurrection of Christ, and next, all about how death came through sin—- by Adam’s Fall– and Eternal Life will come to all faithful followers of Christ. At the Second Coming, when the Resurrection of the Body occurs, the faithful who have “fallen asleep in Christ” will rise from the dead, and will be miraculously clothed in their original flesh, but will be as Christ was, in a glorious, deathless state of Eternal Life, after His Resurrection. He is our Model for the dogma of the Resurrection of the Body. When this occurs, just like Saints who in this life were gifted with such abilities as bilocation, passing through walls and doors though having a physical body, and instant travel, anywhere, with no boundaries, though having a body, and many other special gifts. Our bodies will be as Christ’s was, after His Resurrection, and very different– beautiful, Christ-like, and miraculous! And Death, which came into this world by sin– will no longer exist, for Christ’s Faithful! Eternal Life in Heaven awaits! Isn’t that glorious?? St. Paul teaches this doctrine in other places, too.
St. Paul notes that when the Resurrection of the Body occurs, the soul will dominate the body, not the other way– and there will be no more death. We are meant by God to be whole people, whole in body and soul. At the Resurrection of the Body, we will be united in body and soul, “spiritualized,” and there will be no more illness, sadness, earthly problems, sin or death. We will be blessed with Eternal Life, in union with Christ, in glorious Heaven, with all the Angels and Saints!
The above mentioned states have no regard for the bodies of unborn children, so little wonder they have no regard for the bodies of the deceased.
Clinton R., Christ’s promises are for all– Christ is there for the miscarried and unborn aborted children, too. Go talk to your priest. Don’t miss out on Christ’s promises.
next will come human compote
maybe Nancy will top her ice cream with it
I’ll admit it – I’m slow to catch on.
Now I “get” all this gender fluidity.
what doe it matter?
In the end – we’re ALL just compost.
Rust in Peace!