A German trend towards burying ashes of the dead in unmarked graves or scattering them in forests risks dehumanising next of kin and preventing them from getting over grief, Roman Catholic bishops said today.
This trend, fuelled by rising funeral costs, go against a human need to grieve over the loss of a loved one and remember that person, they said during a meeting of the German bishops' conference.
The rising cost of coffins, gravestones and cemetery plots has prompted more and more Germans in recent years to opt for cheaper ways of disposing of the dead such as burying ash-filled urns in an unmarked section of a cemetery.
Some states have allowed so-called ''peaceful forests'' where families can scatter ashes among the trees in a ritual the Church frowns on as potentially pagan.
The trend got a further boost when health insurance plans last year stopped payouts meant to help finance a proper burial.
''Grieving and remembering need rituals and concrete places,'' said Cardinal Karl Lehmann, according to a statement by the bishops' conference he heads.
''If people frivolously forego mourning and remembering the dead, part of their being human gets lost,'' he said. ''There is a danger that they get apathetic about people.'' Ash-filled urns now account for roughly half of all burials in German cemeteries, with many of these deposited in a common section without any headstone or other markings.
Some cemeteries complain they are losing money because fewer and fewer families buy traditional plots or pay for regular upkeep. They say many families don't want to care for graves or live too far away to visit them regularly.
Some private funeral services even offer low-cost cremations and burials in neighbouring Poland or the Czech Republic.