Ashes

"That funeral honors should be paid to a cremated corpse is a defiance of Catholic conscience which objects to cremation. . . . Any funeral is meaningless after destruction of the body by burning."

Thus in Brussels last week postulated His Eminence Joseph Ernest Cardinal van Roey, successor to the late, great Cardinal Mercier.

Two days later beloved King Albert, Hero-Burgomaster Max of Brussels, the corps Diplomatique (with one exception), and the flower of the Belgian Army followed in solemn procession a gun carriage upon which rested a coffin within which was an urn containing ashes. The Papal Nuncio and Cardinal van Roey and the Belgian Army's Catholic chaplains kept their skirts clear of the funeral. The ashes were those of Lieut.- General Bernheim, during the War Belgian generalissimo, cremated by his own express command.

Before he became Primate of Belgium, Cardinal van Roey labored tirelessly with the late Cardinal Mercier, his predecessor, for rapprochement between Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

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