The Catholic Church’s attitude toward cremation has changed over time. Today, cremation is not only allowed but is growing in popularity in Catholic communities across the United States. Nearly one third of American Catholic families opt for cremation today, and the number continues to grow each year.

Roman Catholics consider the body a temple of the Holy Spirit and a member of the Body of Jesus Christ. This belief creates a great reverence for the human body. How the physical body is treated after death is important because of the Catholic belief that followers of Christ will one day be raised up with Christ to new life. Though the Vatican forbade cremation for centuries, the Church amended its Code of Canon Law in 1963, lifting its ban on cremation. As long as cremation is not chosen to partake in a pagan ritual, the Church allows it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the organized teachings of the Catholic Church and its primary reference text, only directly references cremation once, saying: “The Church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body” (no. 2301). Since 1997, ashes have been formally allowed at Catholic funeral Masses and are given the same respect as a body scheduled to be buried.

The Church no longer opposes cremation but offered guidelines in 2016. If a body is to be cremated, the family must still hold a funeral Mass with traditional funeral rites. The Church strongly urges that the full body of the deceased be present during the final rites, but ashes are also allowed to be present at the Mass. Regarding how ashes should be cared for following cremation, the Church says ashes cannot be scattered or divided among family members in order to preserve the sanctity of the body.

Here are the guidelines on cremation:

“If a Catholic family chooses cremation, the Church requires reverent disposition of the ashes. The Vatican says the ashes must be treated in the same way a body would be. The ashes are to be kept in a sacred place, the Church says, not in one's home, scattered, or divided among family members.”

Placement in a columbarium or burial in a Catholic cemetery or other sacred place is “above all the most fitting way to express faith and hope in the resurrection of the body,” the 2016 statement from the Vatican reads. In addition to ground burial in a cemetery plot as the final resting place, ashes can also be interred in a columbarium, which is a shared mausoleum, or buried in an urn garden.

Please come and see our Holy Mount Columbarium
Beautiful, Peaceful, and Sacred

A priest is “another Christ” for us. He offers the sacrifice of Jesus, and everything else he does flows from that action. We need priests. We need men willing to listen to the voice of Jesus calling them to the Altar, to sacrifice their lives so that others may live in God. The late John Cardinal O’Connor would say very often and poignantly: “If there is no priest, there is no Eucharist; if there is no Eucharist, there is no Church.” The Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, is the center of our lives, and we must believe that God is always calling and knocking on the hearts of some men to be priests.

Salvatore Somma, the 21-year-old seminarian that just finished 10 weeks living and working among us, is one of those vocations. He was raised in Orange County and heard the call of the Lord in his Youth Group and Camp Veritas. Let us pray that men from our Parish answer God’s call, so that it will be neither rare nor unique for us to rejoice as our Parish offers another priest to work in God’s vineyard. Let us also pray for all our priests that they may be men worthy of the title “Father” from God’s people.

In the Rite of Ordination, the Bishop tells the ordinand: “Your ministry will perfect the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful by uniting it to Christ’s sacrifice, the sacrifice which is offered sacramentally through your hands. Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate.” I told Salvatore that we would pray for his vocation, that it stays strong and resolute in the 6 years he still has before ordination. We offer him our prayers, support, and love as he imitates for us the life of Christ in the mysteries he will celebrate.

Each month of the Church calendar is dedicated to an important truth of the Faith, and June is the month that celebrates the Sacred Heart. The feast derives from visions of Christ that St. Margaret Mary Alacoque received in the late 17th century. In the "great apparition," Christ asked her to request that a feast be celebrated annually to commemorate His Sacred Heart and to make up for the ingratitude of men for the sacrifice that He had made for our salvation. That apparition took place on June 16, 1675, hence, the identification of June with the Sacred Heart.

The devotion became quite popular after St. Margaret Mary’s death in 1690. Just over 150 years later, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, at the request of the French bishops, extended the feast to the universal Church. It is celebrated on the day requested by our Lord — the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, which is 19 days after Pentecost Sunday.

We have images of the Sacred Heart in our two Churches, the Divine Mercy Chapel, our outdoor Gardens, and the lower church. Although different in design and materials, all of them reveal the burning heart of Jesus being given to us with tremendous love.

This year, the Feast of the Sacred Heart is Friday, June 16th. We will have Masses in Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at 7:30 AM at the Church of the Assumption and at 8:30 AM and Noon at Immaculate Conception Church.

As you read this article we are three days away from our young people in the 8th Grade receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in two ceremonies. Bishop Joseph Espaillat, the youngest Bishop in the United Sates, will be conferring the Sacrament this year on Wednesday, April 26, and Thursday, April 27, at 6:00 PM. We have 74 young people who will receive the Sacrament, so please pray for them.

Of the seven Sacraments instituted by Christ, Confirmation is probably the one that is least known or appreciated. That’s understandable because it focuses on the working of the Holy Spirit who is often the forgotten person of the Trinity. The Sacrament of Confirmation can be described as the Sacrament of spiritual maturity. It enriches the soul of the person with deep graces of the Spirit. Confirmation is the Sacrament that calls recipients to witness courageously the gift of faith by word and, especially, by the example of their lives.

This Sacrament harkens back to the great Pentecost event (Acts: 2) when the disciples were huddled in the upper room and the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus had promised them, came upon them in the form of a mighty wind and tongues of fire. The disciples gathered there had been commanded by Jesus to take the good news of His Death and Resurrection to the ends of the earth. Pentecost was the moment of their Confirmation.

The basic effects of Confirmation are:

• It roots us more deeply in our relationship with God.

• It unites us more firmly with Christ and reminds us that every sacrament we receive is an encounter with Jesus Himself.

• It increases in us the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord.

• It strengthens our bond to the Church.

• Finally, it gives us strength to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.

The perfumed Oil of Chrism used in the Sacrament symbolizes the strength given to profess one’s faith in difficulty. The laying on of hands by the bishop, joined by the concelebrating priests, is the symbol of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the person.

At the Easter Vigil, I administered the Sacrament of Confirmation for all of our adults in the OCIA program. It is always a privilege as the Pastor to confer this Sacrament of the Holy Spirit. May all of us who were Confirmed or are candidates use the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church. Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

Everyone in the parish knows our four deacons: Deacon Anthony Viola, Deacon Carl Degenhardt, Deacon Frank Orlando, and Deacon Paul Reisman. You have seen them assisting at Mass, baptizing many babies, presiding at weddings, wakes, and Stations of the Cross, to mention a few. They are invaluable to the work and ministry in our Parish. I presume you know that all of them are or were married and have children and grandchildren.

Let us also thank Philomena, Noreen, and Maria ‐‐ the three wives of three of our deacons ‐‐ for the generous gift of their husband’s time and talents in the service of our whole Parish, and, indeed, the entire Archdiocese of New York.

The permanent diaconate was restored during the Second Vatican Council after many centuries. There are three orders in the sacrament of Holy Orders: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. Every bishop and priest are ordained a deacon. Each of these three orders contains a call from God and the Church to be ordained. For example, I was ordained a deacon in December 1981 and ordained a priest on November 6, 1982. Although I completed my deacon year, I am always a deacon as well as a priest. I also want you to remember that the Deacons are ordained clergy for the Archdiocese of New York. They are assigned to a parish by the Bishop. Although we are used to a celibate clergy, our deacons have a full married and family life outside the Parish family. They have the graces of the Sacrament of Marriage and Holy Orders.

I want to thank these generous men and their wives and families for the ministry that they provide among us: not only the Sacraments but youth ministry, leadership, hospital and nursing home visits, the homebound and bereavement ministry, OCIA, and many other hours of service for God and the building up of God's holy people.

A special word of thanks to Deacon Anthony Viola for his 25 years of service as a deacon to this Parish. He retired in August 2022 from active ministry, and we wish him many more years of holy living, good health, and strong friendships. God bless you, Anthony! 

I thought that I would do an article today that reminds us of some of our practices in church that we should remind ourselves and teach our children:

1. We dip our hands in Holy Water and bless ourselves as we enter and leave church to remind us of our Baptism.

2. When Catholics enter or leave a church or chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is present, we genuflect on our right knee. The red sanctuary candle burns to remind us of His presence in the tabernacle.

3. We should wear clothing in church that is worthy of worshipping God. I just ask you to think about what you would wear if you were going to see the President at the White House. You and I have a God in our church greater than any President. Men and boys do not wear hats or head coverings in church.

4. We abstain from food and drink (except water) for one hour before Mass. For medical reasons, this can be dispensed.

5. We should not be eating or gum‐chewing during Mass, even when we are not receiving Holy Communion. Our maintenance staff continues to have to scrape gum from the bottom of pews each week. There are receptacles outside the doors of both churches for refuse.

6. Before you reach the priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister to receive Holy Communion, you should bow in reverence to the Lord that you are about to receive.

7. When we choose to receive communion in the hands, we make a throne of our hands — putting one hand over the other and spreading the palm of our hand flat — to receive Him.

8. When we return from Holy Communion, we should kneel and make a Thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for us. We should never, I mean never, walk out of the church having just received Holy Communion. The Mass is finished when the blessing is given by the priest and you hear the words, ““Go forth, the Mass is ended” or “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

9. We should say all the prayers of the Mass and sing the proper parts with full participation.

10. Please turn off all cellular phones and refrain from other stray chit‐chat while people are trying to pray and fully participate in the Liturgy.