(Fall, 1998)by Fr. Benedict Hughes, CMRI Earth burial has been an integral part of Western culture for at least 1500 years. Lately, however, cremation has become more and more common, to the point that even traditional Catholics may wonder whether it is a lawful means of disposing of the remains of the departed. As we shall see, however, the Church has strongly forbidden it, and its acceptance by the modern, postconciliar “Catholic Church” is just one more proof that this church, with all of its bad fruit, is not of God. History of Burial vs. Cremation Although both of these methods of disposition of the dead were found among early peoples, earth burial prevailed in most ancient cultures. Cremation was unknown, in practice at least, to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Persians, Chinese, the inhabitants of Asia Minor, or even to the early Greeks and Romans. “The Babylonians, according to Herodotus,