[attach id=331599 size="medium"]Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna.[/attach]

The corpse-dissolving technology being proposed by the government as an option to burial does not follow the Church’s teachings as it fails to respect bodily remains, according to Auxiliary Bishop Charles Scicluna.

“I was initially quite shocked by this news... funerals should respect the remains and I have serious doubts that this method does that,” he said when contacted.

“I don’t think that this is in line with the Church’s views on respecting the body,” he said, adding that he would be discussing the matter with bishops and foreign clerics who had witnessed the introduction of similar technologies.

Mgr Scicluna was asked to react to the government’s announcement that a corpse-dissolving system could be one of the possibilities used to lessen the country’s dependency on cemeteries.

Known as alkaline hydrolysis, the funeral alternative would see the introduction of large metal baths which, using a mixture of warm water and potassium hydroxide, turn body tissue into“thick coffee syrup”.

Once melted down, the large baths normally flush the body tissue into the municipal sewage system or recycle it as a high-protein fertiliser.

‘Not fitting end to Christian body’

Mgr Scicluna said he was taken aback by the suggestion but had not yet formed a final decision. He felt this was not a fitting end to a Christian body.

“Once a person is baptised, his body must be given the reverence it deserves in death. I don’t think that flushing it away with the rest of our waste meets this expectation,” he said, reiterating that the Church was still to form an official opinion on the matter.

Last week, Joe Wilson, the scientist behind the macabre technology, told this newspaper that the remains were beneficial to most sewage systems. He had said the resulting waste was an important source of nourishment for bacteria present in sewage systems.

Describing the method as “a way to go green”, he said the technology produced 15 per cent less mercury than conventional cremation. Developed in 2004, the method is a popular funeral alternative in the US, with more than 10 states having taken it up in the past 10 years.

Mr Wilson said he had first developed the method to dispose of animal carcasses back in 1997.

Mgr Scicluna, however, insisted human corpses could not be treated like animals.

“Whatever religion one follows, their remains are not the same as that of any other animal. They have to be respected,” he said.

He also raised concerns over the effect of the method on those left to mourn the departed.

“A main concern is what effect this method would have on the bereaved. One has to put oneself in their shoes.”

Often referred to as the alternative to cremation, the method does not destroy the bones. In fact, once the fluid is drained from large baths, the entire skeleton is left behind. Mr Wilson said this is normally ground and given to families much like the ashes after a cremation.

Mgr Scicluna said the Church’s opinion on spreading ashes was clear.

“When it comes to ashes, or in this case ground bones, the Church believes these should be buried.

“We do not feel that spreading them or keeping them at home falls in line with the Church’s views,” he said, adding that the Church had no problem with cremation as long as this was not done in negation of Catholic beliefs.