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THE GREEN BAG III
IN WHAT FORM AND SUBSTANCE SHOULD INSTRUCTIONS BE GIVEN BY ONE DE SIRING TO CONTROL THE DISPOSITION OF HIS BODY. 1. Such instructions should be contained in the will, in order that they may have the benefit of the special sanction and force of that instrument. 2. As wills are often not opened until after funeral and burial have taken place, such instructions should also be made known in writing to the person or persons likely to have charge of matters immediate ly after death, such as an immediate rela tive, the head of the house in which one lives, or an executor named in a will and known to the family to be so named. A clearly expressed oral request is probably sufficient; but it has neither the sanction interment of the cremated remains, perform such service within such ground." This section re flects the feeling of some members of the Estab lished Church. The writer understands the precise attitude of the Roman Catholic Church at present to be as follows : "i. The Church is opposed to cremation. "2. If a dying person declares his resolve to have his body cremated, priests will not give him the sacraments, nor bury him with Catholic rites. "3. But if the body is to be cremated against the will of the deceased, the body may be brought to the church for mass and blessing, or blessed at the house (where deceased died), and after the cremation the ashes (without any religious ser vice) may be deposited in consecrated ground "4. The priest, however, may not accompany the body to the crematory for any rites, nor even for social or civil reasons." For a fuller statement see the answers by the Congregation of the Inquisi tion, approved and ratified by Pope Leo XIII, to questions of the Archbishop of Friburg in 1892, published in the American Ecclesiastical Review, vol. XII, p. 499 and (in a translation) in the Third
nor the freedom from mistake and error of directions written and signed. CONCLUSION To sum up, then, the authorities generally in this country, except where the law has been changed by statute, show ordinarily that : First, a person may control the disposi tion of his or her body, and direct it to be cremated. Second, if no such directions are left, the matter is in the control of the survivors in the order above stated; but, where disputes arise between persons of the same degree of kinship or in any unusual circumstances, the court will take control, and exercise a wise discretion in the matter. Third, the mode of control by the dece dent is that which has just been indicated. BOSTON, MASS., May, 1905. Annual Report of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Cremation Society. It seems clear that the rules above stated were not strictly adhered to in the Case of General von Xylander. a distinguished Roman Catholic, whose body was recently cremated in Germany, and who was known to have been a member of a Cremation Union for several years before bis death. This has caused considerable discussion in the press, both in Germany and elsewhere, as to whether the Church was changing, its attitude. The writer understands that the case is not re garded as a precedent by the church; but it is said that at least one similar instance has recently occurred. Such cases are probably to be ex plained by the following clause from the decree of Dec. 15, 1886. referred to by the Inquisition in its answer to the fourth inquiry of the Archbishop above referred to. "In particular cases, however, in which doubts or difficulties may arise, the ecclesiastical superior of the place must be consulted, who, after due consideration of all the details, will decide upon that course of action which he shall judge in the Lord to be the most conformable to the teachings of the Church."
