The headline on Luke Coppen's Catholic Herald Blog (It's OK to put your relatives in a pressure cooker, says Catholic ethicist) was certainly an attention-grabber, and I just had to read more.No, nothing to do with serving up Great-Aunt Bertha for a Sunday casserole. It's all to do with green funerals... and the respect demanded by the Catholic Church for the mortal remains of said Great-Aunt.
It seems that acid baths (as popularised by Crippen and Haigh) are no longer fashionable, but a pressurised soak in alkaline solutions is enough to strip one's bones clean. The bones can then be ground down, and placed in an urn for burial in consecrated ground.
Following last year's tour of the local crematorium, I found the whole thing extremely interesting... though, personally, I still want to be reduced to air pollution, if only to have my revenge for being forced to teach the topic as part of the GCSE syllabus...
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The Swedes have started freeze drying their dead. The corpse is emersed in liquid nitrogen and when thoroughly stiff vibrated so it just falls apart. Then the water is removed in a vacuum pump leaving a freeze-dried powder.
You can read about it here
Haigh (the Acid Bath Murderer) was an Old Boy of my school. He was a choral scholar from the (Anglican) cathedral.
For some reason he never figured in the lists of famous Old Boys read out by the Headmaster on Founders' Day. Odd, that - he was certainly more famous than the rest of them.
I still like the idea of having my ashes scattered. Does the Catholic Church allow this?
I recently visited Aylesford and there was a funeral Mass followed by the scattering of ashes, so I guess it must be.
Any comments please?
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