Critics recommend alternative funerals

National Catholic Reporter, Jan 30, 1998 by Leslie Wirpsa

"Caring for our own dead is at the other end of the spectrum from natural childbirth. It's a logical extension of hospice," Carlson said. "We've allowed the medical profession to medicalize what is a natural experience at birth just as we've allowed the funeral industry to commercialize a natural experience at death. By doing so, they have diminished lots of opportunities to personalize the rituals."

Carlson said taking care of physical arrangements, from preparing a body, to building a coffin, "takes away the sense of helplessness. ... I cannot tell you how therapeutic it is to have something physical to do, and in the process of having something physical to do, there is a natural conduit for grief and love."

High on her list of alternatives to conventional death care is the creation of funeral committees in congregations, a task to which she devotes an entire chapter. The lay-run funeral committee offers an interesting alternative or complement to services provided by commercial, for-profit mortuaries. And, Carlson notes, "Catholic liturgy specifically provides for church and family involvement."

Many dioceses have created bereavement training programs for parishes -- in fact, the Los Angeles archdiocese boasts one of the best programs in the country.

Some clergy and laity are advocating bringing wakes and viewing back into the churches under the coordination of a funeral committee, an option that also has occurred in some parishes. Supporters of this kind of ministry say it saves money, strengthens community, offers a natural support system to the grieving and provides an important opportunity for evangelization.

Such ministry "would restore the faith to funerals. It would put the emphasis on the spiritual. The simplicity of faith would more than compensate for a large display and a larger bill, which most people cannot afford," wrote Fr. William Bausch in an October 1976 issue of Today's Catholic.

Baush, now retired , was pastor of St. Mary's Church in Colts Neck, N.J., and developed a model grieving ministry at the parish.