Final resting place: Vatican releases instruction on burial, cremation

[rug]

2. I like these two methods:

Asked specifically about the growing trend in his native Germany of "forest burials," where people pay to have their ashes in urns interred at the base of a tree in a designated forest burial ground, Müller said the German bishops were not thrilled with the idea, but accepted it with the proviso that the tree be marked with the name of the person buried at its base.

In the United States and other countries, a growing number of Catholic cemeteries set aside sections for "green burials" for bodies that have not been embalmed and are placed in simple wooden caskets that eventually will biodegrade along with the body.

They seem to be the most natural.

I read in another article why the Church opposes scattering the ashes. The reason is it suggests pantheism, that all is God. I suppose it's a reaction to the "We are star stuff" sentiment.