Why Choose Catholic Burial
The final expression of our Catholic faith is burial in the consecrated grounds of a Catholic cemetery.
The Catholic cemetery is a ministry of the Church, and burial of the faithful dead is a Corporal Work of Mercy.
At baptism we are clothed in Christ and joined into the mystery of His death and Resurrection. In death, the Catholic Cemetery holds our bodies in sacred trust as we await the resurrection. Cemeteries are places of hope and a final expression of what we profess in the Nicene Creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says Jesus Christ’s resurrection is “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” His use of the term “asleep” is significant. The English derivative of that word is from the Latin “cimiterium,” which means “sleeping place.”
The Catholic cemetery is also a ministry of consolation to the living. In beautiful and reverent surroundings, loved ones of the deceased can come to pray, to remember and to hope. In this way the Catholic cemetery carries out the Spiritual Works of Mercy to comfort the afflicted, and to pray for the living and the dead.
Committal of the body in burial is the final rite in the Christian Order of Funerals. It is a powerful reflection of faith and hope – for the deceased and the living.