Though the Church permits cremation under limited circumstances, permission is not endorsement. The allowance was born of pastoral concession, not doctrinal approval, a gesture toward human frailty, not a rewriting of divine order.

From the earliest centuries, Catholics buried their dead in imitation of Christ, who was laid in a tomb and rose again in the flesh. Burial affirms the sacredness of the body, that temple of the Holy Spirit, and proclaims the resurrection with silent confidence.