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Annual Bring Them Home Mass 2024

Bring Them Home Mass and Committal

November 2nd, 2024 at 11:00am

The annual Bring Them Home Mass and Committal Service will be held at Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery chapel on November 2, 2023 (All Souls Day) at 11:00am.

Cremated remains must be registered by October 25, 2024 for the Mass and Committal Service.

Location:

Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery Chapel

12801 W. 44th Ave │ Wheat Ridge, CO 80033

To learn more, visit our website: https://cfcscolorado.org/events/bring-them-home-mass/

What is the Bring Them Home Mass?

The Bring Them Home Mass and Committal Service is held on All Souls Day (November 2nd) and is an opportunity for those with the cremated remains of loved ones at their residence to bring them to Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery and lay them to rest in a sacred burial space, at no cost.

Every person, being made in the image and likeness of God, deserves to be buried in a dignified and sacred burial space. In fact, the burial of the dead is one of the Corporal Acts of Mercy (Tobit 1:16-18).

“Following the most ancient Christian tradition, the Church insistently recommends that the bodies of the deceased be buried in cemeteries or other sacred places. […] By burying the bodies of the faithful, the Church confirms her faith in the resurrection of the body, and intends to show the great dignity of the human body as an integral part of the human person whose body forms part of their identity. […] Furthermore, burial in a cemetery or another sacred place adequately corresponds to the piety and respect owed to the bodies of the faithful departed who through Baptism have become temples of the Holy Spirit and in which “as instruments and vessels the Spirit has carried out so many good works.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Instruction “Ad resurgendum cum Christo,” October 25, 2016.)

As a ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver, Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services (CFCS) of Colorado offers a unique program that allows, at no charge, the placement of cremated remains in our Crypt of All Souls. This service is available to anyone of any faith who has cremated remains that they want permanently interred within the consecrated grounds of the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery.

Crypt of All Souls

If you were not able to participate in the annual Bring Them Home Mass, our Crypt of All Souls ministry program has a committal service every month.

As a ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver, Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services (CFCS) of Colorado offers a unique program that allows, at no charge, the placement of cremated remains in our Crypt of All Souls. This service is available to anyone of any faith who has cremated remains that they want permanently interred within the consecrated grounds of the Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery.

Highlights of the Program

  • Free placement in the Crypt of All Souls located in Ascension Mausoleum at Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery
  • A committal service from the Order of Christian Funerals
  • A permanent recordation of interment
  • Open to all funeral homes
  • Open to all faiths

Below are the future dates for the committal service and interment in the Crypt of All Souls:

  • November 20, 2024
  • December 18, 2024
  • January 15, 2025
  • February 19, 2025
  • March 19, 2025
  • April 16, 2025
  • May 21, 2025
  • June 18, 2025
  • July 16, 2025
  • August 20, 2025
  • September 17, 2025
  • October 15, 2025
  • November 19, 2025
  • December 17, 2025

To learn more, visit our website: https://cfcscolorado.org/mission-programs/crypt-of-all-souls/

Traditional Methods of Final Disposition – Burial and Cremation │ Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

 

Below is a transcript the the video:

Hello and welcome to this edition of Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark.

We just finished up talking about pre planning and planning and what’s involved in planning and why the benefits are planning. Now, I want to shift a little bit and we’re going to talk about final disposition and what are the options especially through the Catholic view of, for final disposition.

We’re going to look at the traditional ways of final disposition. Some nontypical ways. We’re going to look at natural burial in relationship to all that and then, we’re also going to look non options and discuss why those are non-options.

But to get started with you’re probably like what in the world is final disposition and if you think about those words it really is about that final action that is taken with that human body and so there’s some legal sides about that as well because in most states many states there’s permitting that is required around it and so when we’re talking about final disposition in the eyes of the church you’re really looking at two traditional ways for final disposition you’re looking at whole body burial or you’re looking at cremation and those are the final dispositions that are most common.

We’re going to talk about some uncommon ones but those are the most common final dispositions and when you’re looking at those cases. In both those cases, they require permitting in order to move to that final disposition.

So, before we can bury here at the cemetery, we need a disposition permit.

Before we can have someone cremated, we need a disposition permit and what’s in that is you gotta get a death certificate. Typically, this is done by the funeral director. They send it off to the doctor. Doctor has 48 hours in order to sign off on the death certificate. Once we get the death certificate back, then, we can apply for the disposition permit to either have the burial or the cremation.

In those cases, the final disposition of the burial, the traditional burial is the burial into that place that is part of the permit. If we’re going to someone later, we need to get permitting to move that body to a different place and we really don’t want to do that but that’s where the final disposition is bearing that person in that location.

For cremation, the final disposition is the cremation and those cremated remains is the final disposition and so in those cases in the eyes of the state, you can take those cremated remains and really do whatever you want to do with them but we’ve gotta remember just because it’s legal to do something, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean it’s the right to do and so as a church, we talk about respect for the body and respect for body that’s cremated or in intact in the same way and so we do ask that cremated remains be respected and placed into a cemetery and so that is the final disposition is that is traditional as cremation or whole body burial.

We’re going to look at next time in two examples of some more ways that are acceptable but not as traditional and we’ll talk about those next time, burial at sea and also donate your body to science.

Until that edition, this is Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark.

Make it a great day.

Visit our website to learn more: https://cfcscolorado.org/catholic-teaching/

Why Cremated Remains Should be Interred in a Cemetery – Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

Below is a transcript the the video:

Welcome the funeral facts with Deacon Marc. We have talked about a lot of different things over the last couple weeks the last couple months and today and then the next session we want to talk about two things that are related. Why should I have my remains interred in a cemetery and, two, why should I have my remains interred in a Catholic cemetery.

We’ll take each of those separately in two different sessions but so today we’ll talk about why should I have my remains interred in a cemetery so just to get it right off the bat we don’t often have conversations about whole bodies being buried in the backyard or in anywhere else at this point in time typically a traditional burial happens in a cemetery so for the most part when we’re talking about why should we be buried in a cemetery or interred at a cemetery we’re talking about cremated remains  and so we want to talk about three different areas the security, this psychological, and then the spiritual. And then all three of those pieces go into the big overarching piece of the whole thing of respect for the body and so let me talk about each one of those pieces separately so that we can give you some insight into why the church says yes you should be interred in a cemetery.

So, let’s start with security; was recently watching the news and on the news was a lady whose house was burglarized robbed and the people took many different things TV, money, jewelry, and this pretty vase that was left on top of the mantle. It wasn’t a vase it was an urn and they were on the news asking for their loved one back. so one reason why it being turned into a cemetery is for that safety and security of your loved one that they’re in a place that is safe and secure for their loved one to be laid for eternal rest.

Then, it brings into the psychological it helps the grieving process. I was talking to a pastor who often has people coming to them and saying hey I’ve lost my loved one X number of years ago and I’m still really grieving is that normal? and he always asks the question “was it the person buried traditionally in a casket or was the person cremated?” and then he asked the question every time he asked the question where are the cremated remains he gets the answer “they’re in the house somewhere…” and so there’s a directly direct tie between being able to go through the grieving process and then also having those cremated remains, the remains of a loved one, in a cemetery it gives you that break that changed realized life is changing. I know we all want to hold on to our loved ones but having that person in the cemetery still allows us to go and visit them but also realizing that life is changing.

And then the third piece is the spiritual side of it. Spiritually when we place our loved one into a cemetery whether they’re in a casket going into the ground, in a mausoleum, whether it’s cremated remains when we close that door when we lower them into the ground when we cover them up we are at that committal we’re also saying God I turn this loved one over to you, I give this person to you. And so we’re giving that word spiritually saying I’m trusting I’m God I’m having that hope and God

So all that comes down together if you take all three of those components together it really is about respecting the body the body that is created in the in the likeness and the image of God and so all the why do we do all those things out of respect for the body and so there is very good reason why we want individuals to be interred placed buried into a cemetery spiritually, for security wise, and for psychological reasons and overall for the respect of the body.

It does make a difference.

That is this week’s funeral facts with Deacon Marc

You have a good week and God bless you!

For more information about our ministry services, visit our website at: https://cfcscolorado.org/services/

 

Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of Colorado
A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver

Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery |

Crypt of All Souls – Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

Below is a transcript the the video:

Hello and welcome to Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark.

We have started these series by first looking at the right of Christian Funerals and we did a couple podcasts on that. We then did a series on cremation and now we’re going to start a third piece with it our third series and talking about the ministry programs we have here at Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services of Colorado.

First of all, we are a ministry.

We are part of the Archdiocese of Denver and so we have several ministries that we make sure to help fulfill dead. We have the Crypt of All Souls which we’ll talk about today, next time we’ll talk about precious lives and then, we’ll talk about two groups; care for those that can’t afford a funeral and also care or our veterans and how we help support the veterans who want to be buried in the Catholic Cemetery

So that will be our three series but today, we’re going to talk about Crypt of All Souls and go right from cremation into crypt of all souls. One of the things we talked about in cremation is that the body should be placed in a Catholic Cemetery and we have people that can’t afford that or different things and so, we have what we call the crypt of all souls.

It’s a crypt where we place on a monthly basis through a committal service, cremated remains at no cost to the family and this could be done for a wide variety of reasons and biggest reason is people have just paid for the cremation and all those different pieces and they can’t afford the the private niche or the private burial. So, we do offer the Crypt of All Souls.

We offer the Crypt of All Souls and not only to people who pass away recently but often times, we’ll get people who are cleaning out grandma’s house and they’ll find cremated remains in there or they will be at a yard sale or different places and find cremated remains and so we take all those cremated remains into our care at no cost anyone.

On the third Wednesday of the month, we have a deacon that comes in and we take those cremated remains. We take them to the crypt where they’re going to be laid to rest and we perform the right of committal for those individuals that are being laid to rest there and so they have that committal that people would have if they were being buried in a cemetery and so it’s a beautiful, beautiful process.

It helps people take that opportunity to have their loved one in the cemetery. It also provides for the respect of the person and so if you’re interested in the crypt of all souls, if maybe you have cremated remains in your house or know someone who does, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to help you connect you with how to have that loved one placed in our Crypt of All Souls.

That is this week’s Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc.

Make it a great week.

For more information about the Crypt of All Souls, visit the following link: https://cfcscolorado.org/mission-programs/crypt-of-all-souls/

 

Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of Colorado
A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver

Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery |

Cremation and the Catholic Holy Mass – Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

Below is a transcript the the video:

Hello and welcome to this week’s Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark.

We’ve been doing a series on cremation, and we talked about is cremation permitted in the Catholic Church. We talked about do’s and don’ts of cremation. Today we’re going to address our final question and that is, can you have a funeral mass if you’re cremated?

The basic answer to that is yes. But let’s go into a couple details of it.

First of all, if you’re going to be cremated it is preferred that the body be present for the mass. So, the idea being you have the vigil, you have the mass, then you have the cremation and then you place the individual into a cemetery.

So that is the preferred way. There’s a lot of spiritual and psychological benefits to it. There’s a benefit to your family, seeing the body there, being present there, seeing the body at the mass, receiving communion and all that with the body presence. So that is the preferred, it is permitted to have the cremated remains present.

So, you can have the cremated remains present instead of the body, but it’s preferred to have the body. Now People ask, well, why would you not have the body?

Having the body present is a little bit more expensive because there’s transporting the body, caring for the body. You need a casket, all those different types of things. So, the preferred is the body present but it is permitted to have the cremated remains there.

If the cremated remains are present the mass and the committal are very similar except for a few minor things that a lot of people wouldn’t even notice. The biggest one that people probably would notice is there’s no pall placed onto the cremated remains we place a pall on the casket reminding us of the white garment we receive at the baptism and that is connected to dying and rising with Christ and so we put the pall on the casket to remind us of our baptism and the connection to the baptism. If the cremated remains are there, we don’t do anything as far as putting the pall on there and all that. So that’s the biggest piece.

The piece that most people wouldn’t notice is there’s some little minor changes in the prayers that are said. But other than that, it is a funeral mass as everything else would be.

And so, we’re looking at yes you can have a funeral mass if you’re cremated preferably with the body present but if not still have that mass because we want you to have graces of that mass as you go on your journey to the heavenly father.

This is Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark.

Have a great week.

 

Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of Colorado
A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver

Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery |

Catholic Cremation Dos and Don’ts – Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

Below is a transcript the the video:

Hello and welcome to this week’s funeral facts with Deacon Marc.

If you remember back to our last session, we talked about cremation and we talked about is cremation permissible? and permitted within the Catholic Church? and the answer was: It is permitted, it’s still preferred to bury the body, but it is permitted, and you can go back to that video series to talk about all the different reasons why and what the church teaches about that.

So today what we want to look at is what are the do’s and don’ts with cremated remains? Essentially the bottom line of all that is we do what we do with the human body, and we don’t do what we don’t do with the human body.

All of that is grounded in an overriding principle of respect for the body whether the body’s intact or cremated there’s a respect for their body as a creation of God, created God’s image and in many cases someone who’s been baptized, received communion, received Christ body blood soul and divinity in communion with our Lord and savior.

There’s an overriding principle that we want to respect the body whether the body has been left intact and buried or whether the body is cremated.

So, what do we not do?

We don’t spread the ashes and we don’t make the ashes into things. There’s a variety of reasons why we don’t do those things beyond just the respect for the body. I was recently a couple years ago with a first or second grader who lost grandma she was given a necklace with grandma’s cremated remains within and she lost it, and she was devastated and wasn’t there she lost necklace she lost grandma.

We out of respect for the body what we do ask is that the cremated remains to be placed in a cemetery there are multiple reasons for that, respect for the body, security of the remains, giving you a place where you can go and visit your loved one, and finally putting someone into the cemetery provides for psychological and spiritual transition in the grieving process.

It’s very important there’s many different options available we’re going to talk about the ministry we have later about the crypt of all souls where we inter cremated remains but that’s a whole other podcast. So today we’re talking about the do’s and don’ts of cremated remains we do what we do with the body we don’t do what we don’t do with the body we don’t scatter we don’t make them into things and place them in a cemetery.

That is this week’s funeral facts with Deacon Marc have a great week!

For more information about CFCS Colorado’s cremation services, visit https://cfcscolorado.org/services/cremation/

 

Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of Colorado
A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver

Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery |

What the Catholic Church Teaches about Cremation – Funeral Facts with Deacon Marc

Below is a transcript the the video:

Hello and welcome to Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark,

Excited to be here with you today, we’re going to talk about a topic that we get a lot of questions about and that is cremations.

I want to talk about cremation first and foremost and be very clear as to the approach we’re going to take and talking about cremations today because when you bring up cremations, you have people all over the place. Some that feel very strongly of cremation should occur. People that feel strongly of cremations shouldn’t occur.

We’re not going to go into what should or shouldn’t happen but really stick to what DOES the church teach about Cremation? And so there’s three pieces that we’re going to go through today we’re going to answer the question;

  • Does the church permit cremation?
  • How do you care for the ashes?
  • What happens at mass with regards to cremated remains?

Those will be the three topics we’re going to talk about but for today we’re going to start about with the question that we get all the time is that does the church permit cremation?

So the answer to that is yes, the church does permit Cremation. Since 1963, the Church has officially permitted Cremation and in the last couple years, they’ve given some great direction on helping us understand the why behind Cremation and so there’s two documents always helpful to learn a little bit about why the church teaches what it does, and so there’s two documents that I really encourage if you have questions about why does the church teach this, and what we’re going to talk about today.

I’d encourage you first and foremost to go to a document that was put out by Pope Francis in 2016, it’s instructions on regarding the burial of a deceased and the conservation of ashes of cremated remains and so that was put out in 2016 and the Vatican does a really nice job of explaining some of the background behind how we should care for a body whether it is a full body or whether it is cremated.

Just recently back in March the American Bishops put out an amazing document on the proper disposition of the bodily remains and so that one also goes into some great detail talking about why does the church teach what it teaches. Really would encourage you to look at those two and we’ll provide some web links for those as well.

So, the church does permit cremation but it’s very clear, we need to be very clear about it, Permits cremation, but the preference is always a bodily burial and so you might be asking why is that the case and so let me quote from what the American Bishops put out in the proper disposition of the bodily remains.

They wrote, “The church considers burial to be the most appropriate way of manifesting reverence for the body of the deceased. As it is clearly an expression of our faith and hope in the resurrection of the body. While the church permits cremation unless it is chosen for reasons contrary to the Catholic faith, the preferred method is burial”

There’s a couple key things within that.

One is a cremation is permitted but two that full burial of the body is what is preferred out of reverence for the body and also expression of faith in life everlasting and in the resurrection. There’s an interesting statement within that it says that the cremation is permitted as long as there’s you’re not doing it choosing it for reasons contrary to the Catholic faith.

So what is that mean?

You’re not doing you don’t want to do cremation to say hey “I don’t believe in the resurrection so I’m going to cremate my body” that’s not accordance with our faith and that would be a reason to say we shouldn’t really do the cremation because you we do believe in the resurrection that is a basis of our faith.

The idea being is that the cremation is permitted but still for a lot of different reasons spiritual psychological reasons for those that remain behind, the bodily burial is the preferred. The other piece that they wrote is the body is not something that is used temporary by the soul as a tool and that can ultimately be disregarded as no longer useful.

Jesus Christ has promised that one day at the final resurrection, the souls of the dead will be reunited with their bodies. Jesus himself did not leave his body in the tomb but rather rose from the dead with his own body.

Christ rose from the dead with his body and all. For that same reason as an expression of our faith in the resurrection. Burial of the body is what is preferred.

So, to answer this week’s question, is Cremation Permitted?

It is permitted. But the burial of the whole body is preferred.

Gave you two documents that the church has written. There’s another book that outlines his teachings and are the history of death and beliefs of Christianity around death and burial? That is a Scott Hahn book, Hope to Die is another great resource you can use to learn a little bit more about it.

So, That’s this week’s Funeral Facts with Deacon Mark,

Make it a blessed week!

Other Resources:

Presentation of the Instruction Ad resurgendum Cum Christo regarding the burial of the deceased and the conservation of the ashes in the case of cremation:
https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/10/25/161025b.html

U.S. Bishops’ Doctrine Committee Issues Statement on the Proper Disposition of Bodily Remains:
https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/us-bishops-doctrine-committee-issues-statement-proper-disposition-bodily-remains

 

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A Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver

Funeral | Cremation | Cemetery |

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