CV NEWS FEED // Catholic bishops in Connecticut have issued a stern rebuke of a new bill that would legalize composting of human remains as “an environmentally friendly alternative to burial and cremation,” according to local reports.
In a statement issued by the Diocese of Bridgeport, a spokesperson wrote on behalf of the bishops, stating:
The end result of the human composting process is also disconcerting, for there is nothing left but compost, nothing that one can point to and identify as remains of the body. … Like alkaline hydrolysis, human composting is not sufficiently respectful of the human body.
The process by which remains are composted, the spokesperson noted, involves a complete disintegration of the body, leaving “nothing [distinguishable] of the body to be placed in a casket or an urn and laid to rest in a sacred place where Christian faithful can visit for prayer and remembrance.”
State Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, who serves as vice chair of the Environment Committee stated in the report that the composting process “is sanitary, safe, and gives families dignity, while also preventing the release of carbon emissions associated with cremation and the burial of toxins in soil.”
Another state representative said in the report that he believed “all 11 Republicans on the committee will vote against the bill,” which will be at the center of a committee hearing later this month.
