The church forbids ‘human composting’ at death. But what about ‘green’ burials?
Posted on October 17, 2022, by Loretto Community
Published by America Magazine Oct. 13, 2022.
“So is there a way for Catholics to honor the sacredness of the body in a conservation burial that also honors the sacredness of the land? The answer lies in a 200-plus-year-old community of women religious and co-members in the heart of bourbon country.
Photo by Susan Classen
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“When the Loretto Community buries one of their members in these woods, they enter a space of mystery and transition that provides a natural home for the feelings of grief and gratitude that accompany loss. The burial itself embraces the gifts the land offers in a ceremony that places the body within the woods.
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“Tender. Embracing. Grateful. How different are the words the Loretto Community uses to describe their experience of natural burial from those we usually use. But they are healing words that should be more commonly used to describe the way we mourn our beloved dead.”
Read the entire, poignant article here.
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