The Cemeterian Pope & Dream Resting Places | 4M #188

Welcome to the hundred-and-eighty-eighth edition of Morticians’ Monday Morning Mashup, 4M #188, where we’ll serve up bite-sized, easily-digestible nuggets of the deathcare news you need to crush conversations in the week ahead. Bon appetit!

Deathcare’s pope

You don’t have to be Catholic to be excited about, or at least intrigued by, the election of the first American pope last week. However, here’s one little tidbit about Pope Leo XIV that you might not have heard and that might just make you giddy: While he was a student at Villanova University, Robert Francis “Bob” Prevost was a groundskeeper/maintenance worker at St. Denis Cemetery, a historic Catholic cemetery in Havertown, Pennsylvania! The current pastor of St. Denis Parish, Father Kevin Gallagher, said the would-be pope shared this information last year during a dinner. “It feels special to the people here at St. Denis to know that he was somebody that had to get a summer job,” Gallagher told his local ABC news outlet.

Sparking conversation, but not legislation

Sadly, Indiana will not become the 29th state to legalize alkaline hydrolysis anytime soon. Last week, House Bill 1044, which was initially supported by both Republicans and Democrats, met its demise. It’s the third time AH has been introduced and then shot down in the Hoosier state. The silver lining, however, is that the bill sparked quite a bit of conversation among representatives about disposition options, religious preferences, and the fact that a major manufacturer of AH equipment, Bio-Response Solutions, is headquartered in their state. 

Parking Lot 1 aka Garden of Memories

Countless American cemeteries have been literally buried and long forgotten in the name of progress. Sometimes, though, these properties and the souls they hold are remembered, uncovered, and restored — or at least recognized. That’s what at least one member of the city council in St. Petersburg, Florida hopes will happen with the three cemeteries that have been identified under several parking areas at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. For five months, council member Corey Givens prodded his colleagues to review documentation about the proven existence of gravesites under some of the Trop’s lots; last week, they finally agreed to meet and discuss the findings. 

Speaking of Florida …

A new survey by Choice Mutual has revealed the top three Florida cemeteries that residents voted as their “dream resting places.” Key West City Cemetery was the most sought-after, followed by Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell and Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine, which is no longer accepting burials. 

Scary protest

Remember back in February when DJ Khaled and another rapper found creepy black coffins propped outside their estates? Last week, a protester adopted a similar tactic against the mayor, wheeling a white casket to the home of Flint, Michigan Mayor Sheldon Neeley. Unlike the rappers’ caskets, which were spray-painted to call attention to ongoing feuds with other artists, the casket at the mayor’s home is not being interpreted as a publicity stunt or joke. The political protester, who lives outside of Michigan, was promptly arrested, with the police chief stating that intimidating and threatening actions like these would not be condoned. Mayor Neeley’s wife, who is a state representative, issued a message calling the protest — which also included verbal threats and profanity directed at the family — an act of terrorism. The protester has vowed to hold another demonstration as soon as he’s released.

I awoke early Monday morning to hear of the death of Pope Francis.  Pope Francis, who was 88 years of age at the time of his death, had served in his present position since 2013.

There is no doubt that his death will bring immense publicity to his funeral wishes and the historic traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.  As Death Care professionals it is probably good to understand what is happening and have the ability to relay the importance of the rituals to those who may ask you.

Upon the Pope’s death on Monday about 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, which is about 18% of the world’s population, lost their spiritual leader.  As funeral service professionals there is probably not a better time to be able to relay the emotions of grief and the healing power of ritual to your community friends.

To that end, Funeral Director Daily has linked some articles which might help you understand and inform those that ask:

• The Vatican Grottoes –  Where Popes are traditionally buried.  Webpage from the Basilica de San Pietro

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Pope Francis Has Published Revised Funeral Plans, Opting for Simplicity

From the day Pope Francis was elected to lead the Catholic Church in 2013, it was clear that he’d be doing things a little differently than his predecessors. The night of his election, for instance, he took a bus back to his hotel instead of riding in the official papal car. He has also spent the last 11 years living in a guest house behind St. Peter’s Basilica rather than residing in the papal apartments of the Apostolic Palace. All in all, Pope Francis has lived a humble, simple, “no-frills” papacy — and now he’s ensured that his last rites will be carried out in the same manner.

On November 20, Pope Francis approved a much simplified edition of the “Ordo Exsequiarum Romani Pontificis,” or “Funeral Rites of the Roman Pontiff” book. This volume details how every aspect of the death and disposition of a pope should be handled, from who is the first person to be notified of his passing to how the burial will be completed. The last time the rites were updated was in 1998; those directions were followed for the funerals of St. John Paul in 2005 and for Pope Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013 and died in 2022.

Downsized coffin structure

One of the biggest departures from recent papal rites — and certainly the most publicized change — is Pope Francis’ request to rest in a simple zinc-lined wooden casket rather than within three interlocking coffins, bucking a tradition that has stood for hundreds of years.

The coffin-within-a-coffin-within-a-coffin structure was created for practical as well as symbolic purposes. First, the triple layers created an airtight seal around the pope’s body, with the middle soldered-shut lead layer ensuring durability and providing a surface into which the pope’s name and dates of his pontificate are engraved.

Inside the lead coffin was a smaller one made of cypress wood, which represented the commonness and humanity of the pope resting within. Inside the cypress coffin would be a copy of the eulogy read at the pope’s funeral Mass as well as three bags of coins: silver, gold, and copper, with the number of each representing the number of years he served. 

The exterior wooden coffin was made of elm, one of the most precious woods available in Rome. Before the final coffin was nailed shut with golden nails, a parchment listing the achievements of the pope would be inserted into a copper tube and placed inside the casket.

Pope Francis’s simple zinc-lined coffin will form a hermetic seal and will preserve the coffin’s structure and integrity, even as the exterior wood deteriorates. It’s not clear how the engraving and insertion of coins and documents will be handled, although those provisions are most certainly included in the final version of the rites book.

Simplify, simplify, simplify

At Pope Francis’ request, the new “Funeral Rites of the Roman Pontiff” includes several other measures that reflect his dedication to simplicity and humility more akin to a commoner than the head of the Catholic Church. These include:

• Burial will take place outside of the Vatican for the first time in 100 years. Instead of being laid to rest with 91 other popes in the grottoes beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis will be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major) basilica in Rome. St. Mary’s is the church the pope usually goes to pray before traveling abroad.
• Rather than his body being displayed on an elevated bier for public viewing, Pope Francis’ body will be placed in his simple coffin with the lid removed.
• Pope Francis’ death will be pronounced in his private chapel, rather than in the room where he dies.

Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, told Vatican News that the revised rites highlight “even more that the Roman Pontiff’s funeral is that of a shepherd and disciple of Christ and not of a powerful man of this world.”