ROME -- The Roman Catholic Church elucidated its latest most open stance on cremation, saying does not prohibit this practice as long as certain rules and conditions are respected, religious sources said Wednesday.

The Church “continues to favour burials since it shows a greater respect for the deceased,” however, “cremation is not prohibited unless it has been chosen for reasons that go against Christian doctrine,” said Cardinal Gerard Muller, the leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

 The precise requisites though, are that the ashes may not be dispersed or kept at home or even shared out through the family or conserved in jewels or other objects. They must be kept in a sacred place, “that is in a cemetery or, if it may be the case, in a church or in a place specifically dedicated to this scope by a competent ecclesiastical authority.”

 The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, led by Cardinal Muller, has intervened to elucidate the matter with a sort of “framework law” that can serve as a point of reference for Catholics and episcopal conferences all over the world, Il Corriere della sera reports.

 Various attempts at defining a ‘law’ for cremation have been made previously, but a canonical norm for conservation of ashes and a document to summarize it all to avoid different practices in different countries around the world, was still lacking until now.

  Through burials, “the Christian tradition has guarded the communion between the living and the deceased and is opposed to the tendency of hiding or privatizing the event of death and the meaning that it has for Christians,” the Church said. However, it has permitted cremations for over half a century now, but only with certain conditions attached.

 Cremation as a post-death ritual has seen a significant increase in popularity over the past few decades, and it seems like it will probably become the common practice for many countries in the near future.

 nkd