I hope that all of you are having a fruitful Lent thus far. Lent is an incredibly busy time at St. Alphonsus with the St. Joseph Altar, our Annual Auction, Friday fish dinners, and extra spiritual activities. In the midst of these activities, we might lose sight of Lent and the bold message from Ash Wednesday: “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you will return.” Yes, all of us will experience death one day, and one of the corporal works of mercy is to bury the dead. One of the top five things that priests and deacons do each week is burying the dead and ministering to the families that must carry on. With this in mind, I wanted to discuss a delicate subject with all of you. During our listening sessions last summer, one of the topics that repeatedly surfaced was the possibility of offering other forms of burial space in our existing cemetery. We have a very small cemetery on our church property and all of the ground space has been exhausted. After doing some research, I believe that the best approach would be to offer columbarium space for cremains/urns along the perimeter of the cemetery and the back parking lot (there is a chain link fence there now). If you are unfamiliar with a columbarium, these are raised structures made out of concrete/aluminum and clad with granite and/or marble. Each space (or niche) measures 13” x 13,” which is quite suitable for the placement of a large urn. The granite on the exterior of the columbarium is designed to be etched with the decedent’s name and any other information that a family desires. We have called a few prominent cemeteries in the Baton Rouge area and have determined that their columbarium niches range in price from $2,995 - $8,195. We are proposing to sell our niches from $1,500-$1,700 each, depending on the desired height of the niche. The Diocese of Baton Rouge requires that we establish a mausoleum endowment for the perpetual maintenance of the structure, so 25 percent of the purchase price would be invested at the Baton Rouge Area Foundation for this purpose. Doric Products, a monument company based in Illinois, will manufacture this columbarium. They have been in business for over 70 years. Our initial columbarium will contain 120 niches: 60 niches facing the cemetery, and 60 niches facing the back parking lot. If the columbarium proves to be popular, we could always add additional ones along the fence perimeter as time goes on. So I am asking those of you reading this article today… Have you considered your burial plans? Are you familiar with the Church’s teachings on what is proper for Christian burial and what is not? The Catholic Church does not agree with the modern notion of spreading ashes in one’s favorite place on earth or dividing the ashes of an individual as sentimental keepsakes. There is only one exception to this principle in Catholic thought, and that is if a person is beatified on their way to canonization as a saint, relics can be produced from one or two bones of the saint’s body. Otherwise, the Church teaches that our earthly remains should be buried or interred whole, on land or sunk at sea, as a visible sign that we await the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Christ. Cremains do not need to be interred in a cemetery, but this is certainly preferable to the idea of holding on to urns in a home and creating shrines to our deceased and prolonging the grief process. It is psychologically healthy to put a distance between us and our deceased loved ones so that we can move forward with our lives. Many people have worshipped at St. Alphonsus Liguori Parish throughout their lifetimes and have expressed the desire to be interred here on the cemetery grounds, as it is blessed each year on the Solemnity of All Saints Day. Since the new columbarium and its installation will be a substantial cost to St. Alphonsus Parish, we will require a $500 deposit for each niche, with the remainder of the purchase price due in 60 days. We won’t sign the contract with Doric unless we see that there is considerable interest in this project. Please call the parish office at 225-261-4650 and let us know if you are interested in these cremation niches and how many of them you would seriously need for your family. Once we order the columbarium, installation typically takes three to four months. Thank you for your consideration, and I hope that this project will meet one of the needs of our parish for years to come. Sincerely, Fr. Jason