Catholic Magazine Directs its Readers to the "P.O.V." Series

The Magazine Catholic Online has an interesting article about home funerals, written by the director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The article doesn't say anything new about home funerals nor does it place the topic in a religious context; however, it is great that a Catholic magazine has and article that addresses the bereaved's rights and directs its readers to a resource.

http://www.catholic.org/ae/tv/review.php?id=24860

Lockdown in New Orleans warehouse for 100 Katrina victims

CNN(on-line) had a disturbing video of a New Orleans warehouse today. The New Orleans coroner, Dr. Frank Minyard, is refusing to release 70 identified and 30 unidentified bodies of 100 Katrina victims. Since the families of the 70 identified victims cannot afford to bury their dead they have consequently lost their right to dispose of their loved one. As a result, New Orleans, and subsequently the town coroner, has custody over the dead. The coroner is holding these 100 individuals in an unidentified warehouse on Poydras St, just down the road from the stadium. He is attempting to raise one million dollars to build a memorial, where the dead will be placed in mausoleums. His organization, the New Orleans Katrina Memorial Corporation (http://neworleanskatrinamemorial.org), has raised $250K so far. While the corporation continues to raise funds, 100 people and their families wait for the release of their dead.

I have written to Dr. Minyard, the corporation, and to Mayor Nagin. The letter is below. If you are similarly appalled by what has become another post-Katrina, socio-economic perversion, I encourage you to also write these officials:

Dr. Frank Minyard
2612 Martin Luther Blvd.
New Orleans, LA 70113

Mayor C. Ray Nagin
New Orleans City Hall
1300 Perdido St.
New Orleans, LA 70112
you may insert my letter into the contact form at: www.cityofno.com

New Orleans Katrina Memorial Corporation
PO Box 50610
New Orleans, LA 70150

Dr. Frank Minyard:

I am writing in response to the CNN article that was electronically published on June 16, 2007 regarding the one hundred Katrina victims that are stored in a New Orleans warehouse.

As President of the Institute on Religious Deathcare and Spiritual Healing, Inc., I represent our members and affiliated congregations. I believe your decision to withhold the identified and unidentified victims from interment is a great disrespect to those lives that were tragically lost. I also believe it is similarly unfair to those families that continue to mourn their loved ones and to those who can only wonder if their family member lies in a warehouse, swaddled in a plastic covered coffin. Speaking from the perspective of a hospice chaplain, I assure you that the current treatment of those 100 individuals will further complicate their family’s grieving.

In a city that is continuously striving to overcome many socio-economic injustices, I believe that refusing to inter those whose families cannot afford to bury them is an abysmal malpractice. Furthermore, your interview with CNN gives the impression that you are refusing to release or find sufficient disposal of the decedents in order to create a memorial with the 100 bodies. In your interview you stated: “You can’t spread these victims all over. This is a memorial to a hurricane.” I highly support your pursuit of a memorial; however, withholding the dead from their overdue burial for the sake of creating a memorial is simply unethical. Though I believe a memorial is needed to remember the tragedy and many lives lost, it is not your moral decision or right to prevent the dead from their final interment, despite your legal privileges. The 100 decedents are not merely relics of Katrina, subject to agendas or a community’s intentions simply because of their tragic ending. Continuing to hold these persons will prevent any future glorification a memorial will offer since the mortuary practices that preceded its erection were so terribly grim.

It would be noble and merciful of you to spend a small portion of the $250K you have raised thus far in order to immediately inter the dead. Arranging a simple, inter-faith memorial service to remember the dead can be easily accomplished, permitting families to come together and fulfill their duty to their loved ones, furthering their healing process.

I hope you promptly handle this matter with extreme diligence and compassion. If you wish to speak with me further, I can be reached at joseph.primo@irdsh.org or at 774-***-****.

Sincerely,

Joseph M. Primo, MDiv
President

Prophetic Voices in Deathcare

This past weekend I attended a conference at Yale Divinity School, focusing on Pastoral Leadership. I enjoy going to these gatherings because it attracts so many interesting and diverse people in ministry. The conference began with a lecture by Professor Miroslav Volf, a renowned Croatian theologian. His talk was very relevant to the spirituality of deathcare. While talking about "religious malfunctions" he compared the mystic and the prophet. As I've said before, religious deathcare falls into those two categories, if you're willing to polarize the experience. Volf argued that the mystic ascends to experience God and remains within that experience, consuming the Godly experience; whereas, the prophet ascends to experience God and returns from that experience to share the encounter with others. In other words, the mystic encounters God and is mesmerized by Godliness, and the prophet does the same but sees his/her mission as a need to speak prophetically on behalf of God. Of course, there is a moral responsibility when "speaking on behalf" of God, like not implementing one's own agenda to perversely oppress others. However, I understood Volf to be speaking about the prophetic voice and our need to speak prophetically about matters of social justice.

In regards to deathcare, the prophetic voice that is obtained when encountering and experiencing God in death is a voice that calls for the healing of the bereaved and the preservation of a decedent's dignity. The prophetic voice gained from a mystical experience within deathcare views death as a reality that is not solely ugly and can and does possess beautiful attributes, such as the 70 year old woman who lived a wholesome life and is "prepared" to die.

What I hear Volf saying is that our encounters with God (and in this case through an experience with death) leads us to a better understanding of our life and our living. Therefore, through our ascension to wholeness we gain a knowledge about justice and mercy. It is for this reason that spiritualists are called to remove excessive consumption and wastes in deathcare, fulfilling our obligation to the manifestation of God in nature. Similarly, we are called to find new and unique ways to help the bereaved mourn and find healing in their deathcare practices. There is no one right way to do deathcare, as each family needs to express themselves differently, and there is no one structure in which deathcare should be done. It is for this reason that the Institute has principles which create a just model so that families have a guideline to follow when creating their own, unique deathcare practices. However, our society currently has only two practices: cremation and "traditional." Within these two practices, families do not participate other than to make financial decisions and arrive for a brief visitation and liturgy. The construction of a family's deathcare practices fits within a previously developed format with marginal characteristics inserted into it, such as videos, pictures, and some written word.

As spiritualists, however, we are called to define our mystical encounter with God in unique and personalized ways. Our ascension is through our individualized experience and emotions, and from this ascension we gain our new prophetic voice calling for something new, something just, and something Godly.

And with a little white smoke they were gone . . .

This morning on the CBS program Sunday Morning, Bill Geist did a story on launching cremains into outer space. Before discussing some of the people who were sent to space this past week, Bill gave a synopsis of some other mortuary options, most of which center around mechanically compressing cremains and then manufacturing objects out of the resulting material. He ran through the coral reef option, the copper bracelet (which, surprisingly, doesn’t have the same ionized “force” of the info-commercial fad, Q-ray, and I’m sure has upset a lot of cremains-wearing folks out there), the silver chalice, and the diamond ring. I was hoping Bill would mention green and natural burials, but he skipped those. Given all the options, you really have to wonder if divorce courts are ready to handle the feuding couple that shows up for their court date, with a diamond in hand, fighting over grandma. It’s one thing to lose a family heirloom to the ex, but to lose grandma herself, in the form of a compressed-ash gem, is a whole other story.

So as I’m waiting for Bill Geist to mention green burial, he has resumed his story about cremains in outer space. One man Bill interviewed was sending his father up-up-and-away in an earth-orbiting rocket, saving a little of him to send to the moon with his mother, while his wife shook her head and insisted that she would be having something “traditional” when she died. This woman’s mother-in-law will be spending eternity with actor James Doohan, Scotty from Star Trek. His one way ticket with Celestis Memorial Spaceflights was among many others from around the world. The bereaved had a memorial service at the launch site the day before and woke before dawn to trek out to the Arizona desert for the launch. Celestis kindly arranged for a bagpiper, at least that’s what I heard on the TV; and with a final countdown the dead were off to space (in case you’re concerned that these individuals won’t have a tombstone or some other way to “memorialize” them, Celestis offers a service for families to name stars after their deceased).

When the five minute segment was over I felt a little dumbstruck. Maybe I felt this way because of the son who saved some of his dad’s ashes so he could send them to the moon with his mom once that technology becomes affordable for the average consumer. Maybe it was the image of a harvest moon scattered with bolted-down urns and neon colored flowers that caused me to naysay the idea. Regardless of my reaction, you have to wonder why we’re locking up our dead in vaults to keep them away from dirt; selling expensive, air-tight caskets to keep out the germies (too bad they’re already in the area: mold and bacterias); putting turf around the grave so the family doesn’t have to see the hole (and dirt) that will hold their dead; and stuffing ashes in mini-rockets so that the dead can be as far away from soil as possible. Perhaps I’m just sad because I believe green and natural burials are the best thing going for deathcare these days and because Bill didn’t give them any press this morning. Nonetheless, I just want to make it clear that I don’t want to be on Apollo 49, packed in with my neighbors and floating about for 10 years to forever. But don’t get me wrong, I love astronomy. If you’re going to name a star after me make sure it’s near Orion.

Pay for Care Initiative

The Institute is excited to launch its Pay for Care Initiative. The objective of this campaign is to decrease the cost of funerals and wasteful consumption, while also supporting those individuals whose care has been sought by families. This first step in the restructuring of deathcare allows organizations to collaborate with funeral homes, while also establishing fixed costs and the ability to institute a system of checks-and-balances. I’m including the Initiative below, and it is also available on the website as a downloadable document (see “publications”). Please share your thoughts.

Pay for Care Initiative

The Institute on Religious Deathcare and Spiritual Healing proposes that congregations and hospices collaborate with local funeral homes, when appropriate and the need present, to assist with deathcare. IRDSH’s proposed plan for strategical collaboration has many positive components for all parties involved, and we encourage these collaborations nationwide and hope government assistance will endorse such actions.

Currently: The average funeral, as of 2004, costs $6,500 not including cemetery costs. The majority of this cost is for products purchased, not services offered.

Alternatively: IRDSH proposes that Funeral Directors earn their livelihood from care requested by families rather than products consumed. In other words, a Funeral Director may receive $2,500 from an $8,000 funeral. If a family forgoes excessive consumption of products, congregations and both community and governmental organizations can assist low-income families with cost since the accrued fees are drastically less. This change in mortuary practices will sustain local Funeral Directors, compensating those who are asked to perform familial duties.

Similarly, in order to decrease any excessive or illegitimate costs, IRDSH proposes that congregations, hospices, etc collaborate with local funeral homes to establish a fixed price for those families affiliated with the organization. Congregations and communities will need to educate its affiliates about decreasing costs by minimizing consumption, while also reconstructing a funeral home’s objective of self-reliance from products to compensating these individuals for their hands-on care.

Objective

As a result of decreasing the cost of funerals by minimizing the consumption of products, families, congregations and community groups are empowered to support low-income families, while also perpetuating the ability to care for the dead at home, as able. The support systems that are put into place via the decrease in cost enables foundations, organizations, and congregations et al to accumulate funds for those who cannot afford the service of a hired caretaker, i.e. Funeral Director. This not only results in a decrease in costs, but also a decrease in the consumption of precious woods, concrete, metals, and other materials, resulting in more environmentally sound practices; it also supports the intimate and spiritual benefits of familial participation and communal support, while saving tax dollars.

Stay with me

One of my hospice colleagues invited me to attend a Taize service at her church last evening. If you’re not familiar with Taize it is an ecumenical community in France, where many great songs are written. You can learn more about the community on their website: http://www.taize.fr

After trekking through the rain last night, I arrived at a very beautiful church. Unfortunately, I didn’t ask where the gathering was and found myself saturated as I ran from door to door. I eventually found where everyone was, sitting in a circle in the middle of a candle lit parlor. Several Taize songs were sung but one, in particular, stuck out. The song is called Stay with me—some of you Taize fans might know it. The words are simple: “Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.” Taize chants are repetitious. We probably sang Stay with me 50-75 times, easily. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because the image of Jewish death customs immediately popped into mind. When a Jewish person, especially Orthodox Jews, dies the kaddish (a prayer) is said and their body is immediately covered. Until interment, the decedent will be cared for by shomrim (other Jews who guard the body until interment). The Jewish tradition’s reverence for the dead is quite impressive. Their dead are seldom stored in refrigerators nor are they violated by any intricate mortuary procedures. Rather, the dead are cared for by their community and not treated merely as empty vessels.

When I heard Stay with me last night, I pictured shomrim sitting around a decedent praying, watching, singing and caring for the dead. I believe these practices are the ideal for congregations to aspire towards and enact within their communities.

Jamaican Death Rituals and Western Conventions

Deathcare rituals vary in each society and religious community. Dr. Rebecca Tortello wrote an interesting article yesterday titled: A Time to Die – Death rituals. Her article on Jamaican and slave death rituals can be viewed at:

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070402/lead/lead5.html

The article identifies several things that I have been speaking about within the Institute. Dr. Tortello states that “some [Jamaican] death traditions remain strong,” despite the fact much of the ritual has been replaced by Western conventions. Often times, the decedent is still “taken from the house feet first;” the family stops clocks, covers mirrors, wears black, white or purple, and rearranges the furniture so that the ghost (duppy) of the dead doesn’t recognize their former home and can’t stick around for too long.

In addition to these old rituals and beliefs, the dead are now embalmed so that family can return to the island. Tortello also points out that the dead are embalmed for reasons other than temporary preservation: “[The funerals] can range from small to extremely large as they are also used to showcase the financial and social status of the deceased and his/her family.” Personally, I can’t help but wonder what the rich, disembody dubby must think when he returns to his home only to find that his home and body have received an exotic make-over (I’m assuming the house is exotic too since Jamaica is a Caribbean Island, after all, and I like to think that everything warm and Caribbean is delightfully—except the whole embalming thing—exotic).

The inherently exotic nature of Jamaica death rituals are a mishmash of African and European tradition these days. The cause of death is focused on, preparing the decedent for the after life with a knife or other weapon in case she has to fight the culprit that killed her. Proper handling of the deceased is important, and it is essential that “rituals were followed in a particular order so as not to offend the dead and ensure the spirit’s safe journey back to God.” I appreciate the notion that the dead can be offended. I’m not sure if Jamaicans are afraid that the duppy is watching or if they simply understand that the personhood of the dead can be irreverently disrespected. I assume, like many ritual protocols, it is more about the formality of the ritual and its proper execution, though.

I recently asked someone from Georgia if slave graves can be easily found or identified. Apparently, Savannah has an impressive cemetery and so does a small island off the coast, which is a slave burial ground. According to Tortello, burials for slaves in Jamaica were seldom conducted by ministers since plantation owners were quick to inter the dead. Of course, slaves did not receive large stone markers to record their lives, much unlike their owners. However, some slaves had crotons and coffee rose bushes planted on their graves to symbolize everlasting life, since these species easily survived droughts. As a result, Tortello reports, no slave cemeteries have ever been found in Jamaica. Today, the poor mark their graves with shells. Many memorial services last for up to a week, perhaps as a mourning time or for the practical purpose of remembering where the dead are buried.

I wonder if impoverished Jamaicans feel inadequate in their deathcare because they can’t afford the headstone, coffin or vault like their rich, fellow countrymen. I wonder how long it will be before the poor stop asking spiritual questions and start sacrificing basic human needs in order for to give their dead a ritzy funeral, if they aren’t already. I wonder how much longer it will be until the bereaved start wearing red to funerals, stop rearranging their furniture, remove their dead from their homes headfirst, and forget if the dead are to be buried east or west. I imagine change in their traditional, death ritual will come when they turn their attention to choosing satin or cotton coffin-lining and two or three hour funeral services, and if they decide to partake in someone else’s so-called tradition.