Funeral & Hospice Planning

MCC’s booklets provide Catholic perspective on end-of-life decisions

Joe Stanislav, CEO of Our Lady of Peace hospice and home health care in St. Paul, can vouch for the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s primers on health care directives and end-of-life care.

Eight tips for pre-planning your funeral

You don’t have to tell Joan Gecik that weddings are huge affairs. Getting ready for the big day can take a year or more, she said.

Joan Gecik has been preparing all of her life to lead Catholic Cemeteries

Without knowing it, Joan Gecik has been preparing for her new job as executive director of The Catholic Cemeteries her entire life ­— personally and professionally. But the first notable influence came in early childhood. After Sunday Mass, her parents would take their 10 kids out for a picnic at the cemetery — a free, safe and beautiful place.

Calvary Cemetery offers view into St. Paul’s colorful history

To know a city, people must walk in the footsteps of those who came before them.

Speakers address palliative care, pain management, treating ‘whole person’

A woman religious suffering from metastatic breast cancer in the final stages received medication to ease severe pain and thanked the doctors and nurses.

Patients, families urged to learn more about palliative, hospice care

Palliative and hospice care "address the needs of the whole person, which is the foundation of Catholic health care," said Sister Carol Keehan, a Daughter of Charity, who is president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association, based in St. Louis.

How should ashes properly be handled after cremation?

In 1963, the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction permitting cremation as long as it was not done as a sign of denial of the basic Christian belief in the resurrection of the dead.

Catholic cemeteries bury the poor and forgotten

It is not as if anyone has organized a parade or a public relations campaign to say so, but Catholic cemeteries around the country have, do and will bury the indigent and those whose bodies have gone unclaimed.

Neglected works of mercy: burying, praying for forgotten dead

When a friend’s beloved dog died, Adrian Cruz dug a grave, prepared a box, cleaned the dog and helped bury the animal in a way that helped his grieving friend mourn the loss of her pet.

Pope to honor fallen soldiers at American cemetery near Rome

Pope Francis will commemorate all those who have died in war by celebrating Mass at an Italian cemetery where thousands of American soldiers killed during World War II are buried.

A pastor’s funeral advice for the living: ‘Plan, plan, plan’

Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul hosted an end-of-life seminar Oct. 7 to offer information on funeral planning, pre-planning with funeral homes and cemeteries, medical assistance, veterans’ benefits, financial issues and related topics. Speakers at The Catholic Cemeteries event emphasized that advanced planning includes making and updating wills, selecting a funeral home and choosing burial sites, but that there are other important factors.

Resurrection Cemetery buries fetal remains

Four times a year, remains of stillborn and miscarried babies arrive at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, coming from two hospital networks in the Twin Cities.
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