Sister Death and the Care of All Creation: A Franciscan Argument for Green Burial

Abstract

Since Jessica Mitford’s 1963 scathing critique of the mortuary business in the United States, there has been an ongoing debate about how best to honor and dispose of the dead in ways that do not exploit people. However, the backlash to predatory mortuary practices led to an impersonal and detached process culminating in online purchasing of post-mortem services. More recently, this discussion has expanded to consider the resulting psychological and spiritual detachment around end-of-life, and a return to natural, simple, and fully engaged burial practices, known as “Green Burial”, are being reintroduced and practiced. While many Catholic cemeteries still call the use of embalming and concrete vaults “traditional burial”, these expensive and unnecessary practices are only 150 years old and have significantly affected the natural environment. A different “traditional burial” is possible when using the model of Francis of Assisi himself who offers a more intimate model of dying and death by embracing his own death and calling it, “Sister Death”. This article will use the interdisciplinary approach of Christian Spirituality to explore the Franciscan concern with creation and link it to the burgeoning practice of Green Burial. A discussion of a Franciscan congregation that initiated the practice for their own sisters, the FSPA in La Cross, Wisconsin, will offer a concrete example of rationale, best practices, and challenges for those considering this as a personal option or as a community endeavor.

1. Introduction

In his stunningly beautiful and sensitive book of essays, entitled The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, Michael McCarthy makes the argument for the preservation of the natural world for its own sake because of the sheer joy it can offer. Launching his reflection on the inherent significance of nature from his childhood experience of family turmoil that resulted from his mother’s “frayed mind” and his father’s inability to love, McCarthy discovered the beauty of the Buddleia davidii, colloquially known as the “Butterfly Bush” due to the butterflies it attracts. With the curiosity and intensity a child brings to their own discoveries, McCarthy became mesmerized by the bush and their frequent visitors:

My eyes caressed their colours like a hand stroking a kitten. How could there be such living gems? And every morning in that hot but fading summer, as my mother suffered silently and my brother cried out, I ran to check on them, never tiring of watching these free-flying spirits with wings as bright as flags which the buddleia seemed miraculously to tame…Drawing them in, the wondrous visitants. Wondrous? Electrifying, they were. Filling the space where my feelings should have been. so, through this singular window, when I was a skinny kid in short pants, butterflies entered my soul.

(McCarthy 2015)

In these visits with butterflies, McCarthy as a child experienced both joy and “peace that may come, sometimes, to the troubled mind” (McCarthy 2015, pp. 216–17). These consolations of joy and peace in nature have remained embedded in his soul even as an adult. Throughout the essays, McCarthy grieves the dire condition of our world that has resulted from human hubris that has cultivated habits of commodification at the expense of the natural world with all its complex networks of interconnectedness—really interdependence. The essays that make up the book develop a justification for protecting the natural world, our only home, not because of the resources it offers humans, but because of the joy and potential for peace that it offers when we allow ourselves to experience the natural world organically. When we open ourselves to experience butterflies or wind with all of our senses, we may experience both joy and peace.

Joy and peace: these are two experiences that Franciscans seek through a Christ-centric spirituality that are shared by McCarthy who comes from a post-Christian perspective as a naturalist and journalist. Finding both joy and peace in the natural world elicits a visceral sense of connection between humans and the natural world. Such a connection evolves into an awareness of the interconnection and even interdependence of all living beings and all of the natural world with sustained awareness and reflection. Such is the spiritual awareness that Francis sang in his Canticle, “Praise be You, my Lord, with all your creatures, especially Sir Brother Sun, who is the day and through whom You give us light…Praised be you, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars in heaven…Praised be You, through Brother wind…through Sister water…through Brother fire…through Sister Mother Earth who sustains and governs us and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs…” (Francis of Assisi, Armstrong et al. 1999, pp. 113–14). For Francis, the entire created world offers reason and justification to praise God, even “Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape”. Francis came to the fullness of this awareness as he entered his final days and dictated this final praise of Sister Death for inclusion in his Canticle, thus giving expression in both word and body of his understanding and acceptance of the full cycle of life and death with the hope of new life to come (Pryds 2015).

Given the interconnection of the natural world and the Divine in Francis’s experience of faith and in the spiritual tradition that has developed since his death in 1226, Franciscan theologians, scientists, and practitioners have sought to address the current climate crisis of the 21st century through both thought and action. In 2008 Ilia Delio, Keith Warner and Pamela Wood offered an interdisciplinary approach to a Franciscan spirituality of the earth that maps out traditional Franciscan theology within the context of the current climate crisis and offers spiritual practices to help cultivate and nurture ongoing conversion of heart and habit. It concludes with a call to awareness of the intrinsic value of all that exists as part of a Christ-centered universe (Delio et al. 2008, pp. 205–7). Included in this call is the realization of interconnectedness, which is deepened into interdependence through the embrace of Franciscan poverty. “Franciscan spirituality means changing our internal focus or consciousness. A new consciousness must call us to an active stance as ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ to the nonhuman creation”.

More recently, Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home delineates the effects of human behavior, especially around consumption and anthropocentrism, and calls for an “integral ecology” that invites newfound awareness of the relationship between all things. “It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation” (Pope Francis 2015, para. 137–38, p. 93). In this interconnection, there is the possibility to experience the wonder and the sacrality in this world. Pope Francis urges, “If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beauty in our relationship with the world, our attitude will be that of masters, consumers, ruthless exploiters, unable to set limits on their immediate needs. By contrast, if we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously. …Rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise." (Laudato Si’, par. 11–12).

Therefore, with both awe at the sacrality of our natural world and practical strategies for solving real problems facing us, Franciscans face the climate crisis with many suggestions.

While many practical suggestions have been offered in these and other works that have offered a Franciscan approach to the climate crisis, one area that has not been explored, examined, and promoted widely in Franciscan faith communities is that brought on by “Sister Death”. Namely, how have the effects of the modern mortuary industry exacerbated climate change and what is an appropriate Franciscan response? To date, Franciscan scholars looking at issues around dying and death have not examined green burial (Mitchell 2011). In the rest of this paper, I will examine how the “death-positive movement” has reconsidered practices associated with what is ironically called “traditional burial” and will propose that the practice of “green burial” and environmentally conscious innovations are in keeping with Franciscan values and warrant serious reflection, discussion, and adoption by practitioners within the tradition.

2. The Myth of Traditions and The Death-Positive Movement

Although care and burial of the dead are considered a traditional corporal act of mercy among Christians and early practitioners of the faith acted on this by forming burial societies in antiquity, the practice of caring for the dead had routinely become the professional business of the mortuary industry by the early 20th century in the United States (Ariès 1981; Laderman 2003). With commercial motivations, many customs and practices around the preparation of the body and its burial developed in ways to cosmetically hide the reality of death and to distance families from caring for their dead, themselves. These customs, including embalming to stave off the body’s decomposition and the placement of a hardwood or metal casket within a concrete vault for burial, are among the practices that have come to be considered elements of a “traditional” burial in the United States. So ingrained are these practices that the United States Federal Trade Commission follows the common custom by using the term “Traditional Funeral” to refer to a ‘full-service” funeral complete with embalming, viewing, formal funeral, and rental of a hearse for transport to the burial site. The Commission overlooks the existence of home funerals or personal care for the dead since the site states matter-of-factly that for a “Direct Burial”, “No viewing or visitation is involved, so no embalming is necessary”. (Federal Trade Commission Website 2012) One finds similar expectations if not in detailed language in many if not most of the country’s Christian churches of all denominations, including Catholic. The role of a professional mortuary in the care of our dead has become routine.

A faithful Catholic might not even be aware that since the 1960s there has been a slowly developing movement to reengage in the authentically traditional care for the dying and the dead by those closest to the deceased. The practice of caring for one’s own dead at home—the washing of the body and laying the body out for visitors to pay their respects before a natural burial--was a practice that was customary and traditional prior to the 20th century in the United States and is once again becoming a practice in some circles as a part of a holistic approach to death care. How has this circle of customs around death happened?

The critique and reassessment of death care practices in the United States have largely been initiated and developed outside of faith communities. Many scholars mark the beginning of this movement with the publication and popular reception of Jessica Mitford’s 1963 scathing critique of the mortuary business in the United States (Mitford [1963] 1998). Her exposé of what had become standard predatory practices in the mortuary business, including price gouging, upselling, and general deception that took advantage of a client’s psychological vulnerability at the time of a loved one’s death helped raise awareness of the profit motives of many mortuaries. Her examination of the development of after-death care into a commercial endeavor that separated the care of the deceased from the intimate role of the family and faith community into a business transaction pointed to the growing alienation Americans experienced from caring for their dead. No longer involved in the rituals of washing the body and preparing it for burial, Americans handed over these tasks to professionals who handled logistics and along the way created what is today often called “traditional burial” (Laderman 2003; Bryant and Peck 2003; Servaty-Seib and Chapple 2021). For example, embalming, a practice introduced in the United States in the mid-19th century during the Civil War to allow families to see their loved ones who had died in the war, became standard procedure with its ample cost and toxic effects on the environment, through the first half of the 20th century (Byock 2007). Increasingly complex and disingenuous justifications for the procedure, such as its necessary role in a sanitized burial, were offered, adding to the financial costs, promoting the psychological denial of death, and ironically, significantly contributing to the pollution of the earth. Suzanne Kelly writes, “In its quest to eradicate filth and safeguard the living, the use of embalming has effectively succeeded in turning the dead into something dangerous, a real pollutant” (Mitford [1963] 1998; Kelly 2015, p. 45).

The public outrage that Mitford’s book unleashed led to more serious critique and damning representations in popular culture that questioned commercially driven practices that were inspired by an effort to use religious trappings to evoke a sense of mystery and spiritual reverence within the secular context of a mortuary business. Evelyn Waugh’s biting satire of the thinly disguised Forest Lawn “Memorial Parks” in Los Angeles in his novel, The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), was made into the scathingly satirical film directed by Tony Richardson in 1965, inspired by Mitford’s detailed efforts to expose manipulation, alienation, and predation of people around experiences of death (Waugh 1948; Richardson 1965). The satire of the novel and film highlights the ethos and practices at Forest Lawn which was founded in 1916 by Hubert Eaton in Tropico, California (now a neighborhood in Glendale, about ten miles north of downtown Los Angeles). Eaton’s intention had been to transform how people viewed death by reframing cemeteries into “memorial parks” filled with cultural opportunities including reproductions of famous pieces of western European art, such as Michelangelo’s David and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper, as well as quaint churches built to call to mind Anglo-Saxon roots. Added to this homage to western art were symbols of American patriotism peppered among more sentimental images of children resonating with domestic love. Together the iconography of the park offered various opportunities to experience transcendence in an effort to distract the visitor from any thought of the physical death that brought them there in the first place. Both Waugh’s novel and the film focus on the manufactured environment that promoted the fervent belief in human immortality, both spiritual and physical. (Llewellen 2018; Oring 2000).

But in this memorial park, in which only evergreen trees were planted (deciduous trees reminding the visitor of the circle of life and the very reason they were visiting the place), many practices were put in place to stave off and even hide the inevitable, that being the decomposition human remains. In addition to the regular embalming and the cosmetic preparation of the corpse, Forest Lawn advertised its “[s]cientifically designed crypts that promote ‘desiccation but not decay’” (Oring 2000, p. 57). Thus, Forest Lawn deliberately crafted a message that sold through the 20th century. Elliott Oring explains that message as “the life beyond involves not merely the immortality of the spirit, but, in some unexplicated manner, the endurance of the flesh as well” (Oring 2000, p. 59). Lest readers assume this was merely a Hollywood-inspired, exaggerated expression of mortuary practices in the United States, Oring places Forest Lawn within the tradition of the rural cemetery movement and finds symmetry with many urban cemeteries around the country dating from the 1830s. While Forest Lawn might very well seem hyperbolic in all of its accoutrements, it is by no means unique in the American experience of cemeteries. To this day most cemeteries and mortuaries privilege the “full service” options that include unnatural and unnecessary practices that harm the environment and the people who work in the mortuary industry (Saikia et al. 2022; Calderone 2015).

In reaction to the continuation of these practices, a “Death-Positive Movement” has slowly developed in the United States since the 1960s, but has done so alongside the commercially driven mortuary and cemetery industry that has continued to grow in ways that have seen the decline of independent funeral homes and the consolidation of mortuary businesses. Some mortuary professionals, such as Caitlin Doughty, are working to help people return to traditional practices of engaged care for their own dead, by demystifying death and considering the importance of ritual that had been lost in Mitford’s harsh economic critique (Doughty 2015, 2017).

3. Green Burial/Natural Burial

The Death Positive Movement is interdisciplinary and involves both scholars and practitioners (Home Funeral Alliance 2022; Human Composting 2022; Boucher 2015; Browne et al. 2014; Order of the Good Death 2022; The Green Burial Council 2022; Aquamation 2022). One of the many aspects of the movement has readdressed burial practices with the specific intention to consider the environmental effects of what is often mistakenly called “traditional burial” and more carefully labeled “conventional burial”, referring to the embalming of the body; the use hardwoods for caskets; the placement of the casket in concrete vaults in the ground. The interest in Green Burial or “natural burial” also includes a reassessment of the practice of cremation, which continues to grow in preference for death care in the United States, despite its negative environmental impact (Kelly 2015; Sloane 2018; Wienrich and Speyer [1993] 2003; Harris 2007). The Death Positive Movement in general and the Green Burial movement, in particular, are both thriving through the prolific publication of practical and academic resources, as well as through the growing number of practical conferences or “festivals” such as ReImagine that are held in person and virtually (ReImagine 2022). Some communities have been slow to participate. In general, the Catholic community is one of them.

The option for Green Burial is limited in Catholic cemeteries within the United States. That is not to say the option is non-existent for Catholics, but it remains a rare opportunity. There are many reasons for this. Paula Rathgaber-Gomez, the Director for Pre-Planning with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles Cemeteries explained that there is nothing contrary to the Catholic belief in natural burial, but practical concerns have marginalized the practice of natural options within Catholic cemeteries. Many of these practical concerns have to do with logistics.

According to California state law (Slocum and Carlson 2011), a body must be buried, cremated, or refrigerated within 48 hours of death. Catholic funerals privilege the presence of the body. Given the time usually required to gather family and notify others to attend the funeral, embalming has been seen as logistically helpful in preserving the body, although refrigeration is an option. Many family members defer to the opinions of mortuary staff on this logistical decision.

Other reasons that Rathgaber-Gomez cited as slowing down the requests among the Catholic faithful for green burial include the location of burial. Many people want to be buried near their family members who have predeceased them, which makes the decision to be buried in a different location that has been opened to natural burial a challenge. Memorialization is also a priority for Catholics so that each individual is named and receives proper recognition. Many natural burial sites forgo any name or memorial markers, although some have some forms of memorialization such as stones engraved with names and or epitaphs or a record of GPS coordinates for the location of burial (Sloane 2018, pp. 62–65).

Perhaps most importantly, people do not know about this practice since there are relatively few green burial cemeteries in the United States in general and even fewer that are Roman Catholic. There has not been a rush to create Catholic natural burial spaces for the general Catholic population, either. Catholic or not, most green burial preserves are created when patron requests reach a critical mass. In many places, awareness around this practice has not brought about such requests. According to Rathgaber-Gomez, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, there have been only four to six requests in the previous year (2021–2022). While the Archdiocese could consider opening a natural burial area in one of its properties north of the city of Los Angeles, this has not been a priority given other concerns, especially since the pandemic. It remains true, that cemeteries and mausoleums remain important revenue sources for Catholic dioceses and Catholic orders who sponsor cemeteries where the public may purchase plots or niches. This could also be a factor in slowing any incentive of some organizations in publicizing other forms of burial (Santa Barbara Mission Mausoleum 2022).

Finally, there is little open discussion or education from ecclesiastical officials on options around care for the dead. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops write reverently about the human body and the reason great care needs to be taken with the body:

The Church’s reverence and care for the body grows out of a reverence and concern for the person whom the Church now commends to the care of God. This is the body once washed in baptism, anointed with the oil of salvation, and fed with the bread of life. This is the body whose hands clothed the poor and embraced the sorrowing. The human body is so inextricably associated with the human person that it is hard to think of a human person apart from his or her body.

(United States Council of Catholic Bishops 2022a, 2022b)

Much attention is given to the preference for burial over cremation while acknowledging cremation is to be allowed (Wooden 2016). However, there are no references to the role families may take in reverently preparing their deceased loved one for the funeral mass and burial. Instead, reference is given to the common practice of using a professional “funeral home” with the professional staff, including the funeral director, taking care of details. With any presumptions, there is a loss of clarity around choice.

Nevertheless, there are some circles within the Catholic world in general and specifically in the Franciscan world where green burial has taken root, namely in some women’s religious congregations. While still not widespread, several congregations have begun offering a natural burial option for their members. What follows examines just one example.

4. Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, LaCrosse, Wisconsin

The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse Wisconsin initiated a natural burial option for the sisters in 2009 on St. Joseph’s Ridge near La Crosse (Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration 2022). The move came from the concerted effort of Sister Helen Gohres, who when she was 91-year-old, worked to establish natural burial as an option for herself and her fellow sisters. Her inspiration was deeply Franciscan, “This earth has nourished me all these years. It’s now my time to return that nourishment to the earth with my body”.1 According to Beth Piggush, the FSPA Integral Ecology Director and Laudato Si’ Promoter, as of this writing in July 2022, sixteen sisters have already been buried in the congregation’s natural burial cemetery and forty sisters have registered their preference for natural burial when the time comes. Many of the sisters continue to opt for what Piggush herself called “traditional burial” meaning conventional burial in a designated section in the city’s cemetery with embalming and vaulting. One reason for this preference is out of concern for family members who will need to be notified and travel for the funeral. Travel logistics even in normal times, let alone during this time of pandemic tends to add more time between death and funeral/burial, making natural burial impossible. Other sisters desire to be buried close to where most of the congregation has been buried. That being said, a growing number of sisters have chosen their preference to forego the processes that complicate death and burial, by opting for green burial.

When asked if there is an ongoing conversation within the congregation around green burial, Piggush acknowledged that the energy for these discussions and discernments is growing from the congregation-wide reflection on what they call “Provocative Movements”, three pillars of reflection that were distilled from congregation-wide gatherings in 2018 called “A Revolution of Goodness” and in 2022 called “A Revolution Through Encuentro”.2 Reflecting, praying, and discussing these three Provocative Movements—namely (1.) building bridges of relationships that stretch us to be people of encounter who stand with all suffering in our Earth Community; (2.) Gospel living that frees and transforms through joy and love; (3.) and celebrating authentic unity in diversity by unveiling white privilege—are helping the sisters grow in their awareness of the full circle of life. With this is emerging a deeper appreciation of how bodies continue to contribute to life by feeding the earth after death.

In addition to the sisters’ own discernments through this process, they are part of a broader conversation in the upper Midwest on burial practices (FSPA Brochure n.d.). Sr. Sharon Berger, FSPA promotes Green Burial and the congregation’s practice of it through PowerPoint presentations that offer Franciscan spirituality, environmental impact data, and many photographs that demystify the practice for audience participants. Included in these presentations and general conversations on the subject conversation are the FSPA lay affiliates who primarily reside in the general region surrounding LaCrosse, although some reside farther away, having had connections with the sisters through a variety of professional, personal, and devotional ways.3 One affiliate, Tim Sullivan who lives in Iowa, shared his preferences for his own burial this way: “The options [I am considering] to be buried [are] in a cardboard box that looks like a casket; a wood box made locally or by a monk; or simply wrapped in a burial cloth of some sort”.4 He considers the impact this kind of burial will have on his family and added, “The burial cloth may be difficult for family to watch so the other options are probably more likely”. When asked if he can talk about this much with others, he said, “My siblings and I had a general discussion on this topic, but I have not talked about it elsewhere other than in our FSPA [Affiliate] group. It is easy for me to talk about it with others. I do not personally feel a need to process it in more depth, but it would be helpful for our community and catholic communities to begin some conversations about it. I think many Catholics’ first perception is that it would not be acceptable to the church and if they want to be buried in a Catholic cemetery, in most places that is likely true at this point”. Although he does not attribute his interest in green burial the FSPA congregation he does tie his concerns to Franciscan spirituality, and noted, “One of the reasons we chose to affiliate with the FSPA is because of their emphasis on care of creation. I believe a green burial is a way to practice care of creation and in some ways is a symbolic gesture of how we try to live our life. It also is a representation of my practice of attempting to find a deeper connection with the divine in nature”. However, knowing how aspiration and precepts do not always lead to practical considerations, I asked him if he had made specific plans to secure a natural burial when he dies. It is clear that he has given this considered reflection and planning: “My current burial plan comes after exploring a variety of options. It turns out that a small rural cemetery near my house does not require embalming or any kind of container. A local funeral director will make the arrangements and ensure I am buried within the state of Iowa’s time requirement. I do not know yet what I will be buried in but there are a number of options that meet my desires”.

Tim’s spouse, Charlotte Sullivan, also agreed to share her views. Also an FSPA lay affiliate, Charlotte noted that the sisters’ practice of green burial did raise her own awareness about this practice. In addition to the FSPA practice, other congregations’ practices informed her decision. “I first learned about green burial from hearing about different religious orders creating a green cemetery. Before I heard about green burial, I was interested in a simple wooden casket, or possibly cremation. Simplicity is important to me, and the price of typical funerals today seems outrageous and immoral”. She has not made firm plans for her future burial, but she does have preferences: “The form of green burial that interests me is a simple burial, no embalming, no vault, and no metal casket. I am considering a wooden casket or simply a shroud that will decay naturally. Also, no tombstone, but perhaps a wooden bench marking the grave”. Making this happen will involve still future logistical planning and documentation, but she does acknowledge that the conversations that are important to this have already begun with family members: “I have not made concrete plans for my own burial but have looked into the regulations of the cemeteries near me. The cemetery near our house does not require embalming or a vault or casket. We have also checked with a local funeral director about our wishes and what steps need to be taken for a green burial. We will continue to look into this further. I have talked about this with one of my daughters and she is supportive of the idea. As this is a new concept in our small Iowa community, I think details of my burial will need to be put down in writing and I will need to share it with my siblings and other family members. We have not discussed it with friends or others, but I think there could be support if people were more aware of it”. Like Tim, Charlotte shares a deep respect for Franciscan spirituality which, she says, lays at the heart of this discernment to choose green burial. “I do connect green burial with Franciscan spirituality as it seems a natural connection to caring for creation during and after life”.

Although the FSPA congregation and affiliates represent just one extended community practicing discernment around green burial, their commitment as a Franciscan community offers a model of engagement in this subject, not as an abstract study in theology, but as a lived experience of faith within the Franciscan spiritual tradition. Why is green burial an apt expression of Franciscan spirituality? The FSPA community writes on its webpage, “As Franciscans we recognize the beauty and oneness of all creation knowing that all we do affects everyone and everything. Natural burial is a way to honor the sacredness of our Sister Earth as well as the natural cycle of life and death”.5

5. Franciscan Spirituality and Natural Burial

As we humans continue to consume our way through the 21st century contributing to the rise of global temperatures that are reaching catastrophic levels, there is wisdom in both the joy and beauty that became a part of the lived experience of faith of Francis of Assisi:

How great do you think was the delight the beauty of flowers brought to his soul whenever he saw their lovely form and noticed their sweet fragrance? He would immediately turn his gaze to the beauty of that flower, brilliant in springtime, sprouting from the root of Jesse. By its fragrance it raised up countless thousands of the dead. Whenever he found an abundance of flowers, he used to preach to them and invite them to praise the Lord, just as if they were endowed with reason… Finally, he used to call all creatures by the name of “brother” or “sister” and in a wonderful way, unknown to others, he could discern the secrets of the heart of creatures like someone who has already passed into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

(FAED, p. 251)

In this and so many other passages from the hagiographic tradition that developed around Francis, we read of his delight in creatures, whether they be beautiful like flowers, on which he gazed and enjoyed their fragrance, or even the lowly worms, which he carefully removed from roadways to protect from trampling. Far from being the fodder for sentimental faith, Francis’ awareness of his place in the created world, surrounded by natural beauty, opened his eyes to a new way of living out his faith. All of creation brought to his mind and his heart his Savior, Christ. Living in a Christo-centric world, which he shared with these creatures, he marveled at their presence. Far from positioning himself as superior, his consciousness of sharing this world with others brought about a most humbling sense of love and admiration for God. As a result, Francis is said to have experienced an intimate awareness of the interconnectedness or interdependence of all of creation, both alive and dead, thus overcoming himself and the human tendency for anthropomorphic arrogance. As stated in his Canticle, “Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm” (FAED, p. 114). Having already died to himself through his ongoing conversion of poverty, there was nothing to fear in the second death, that of the physical body. His embrace of complete humility brought him to an acceptance of interconnection with all creation.

This Franciscan anthropology requires a change in attitude and practice on many levels. Pope Francis in Laudato Si,’ wrote about the effects of modern anthropocentrism in privileging technical thought over reality. As a result of this privileging, “The intrinsic dignity of the world is thus compromised” (Pope Francis 2015, para. 115–17). Anthropocentrism also gave rise to “a wrong understanding of the relationship between human beings and the world”. A wrongheaded Christian anthropology has led to the notion of human dominion over the world rather than responsible stewardship. “Neglecting to monitor the harm done to nature and the environmental impact of our decisions is only the most striking sign of a disregard for the message contained in the structures of nature itself. When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the work of a poor person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities—to offer just a few examples—it becomes difficult to hear the cry of nature itself; everything is connected”. Although Pope Francis does not include it in his encyclical discussion of green burial, the practice is not contrary to the views he expressed.

Switching authorities, but not the thread of argumentation, the nature journalist Michael McCarthy, whose experiences and thoughts were used at the beginning of this essay, writes of the commercial aspirations that underlie many human decisions. Specifically, he notes how shortsighted financial investments have destroyed ecosystems and natural defenses. “Our morality now is entirely anthropomorphic: we automatically define objective good by what is best for ourselves. So where humanity’s interests clash with other interests, the other are likely to get short shrift from us, even when they involve the proper functioning of the planet, which is the only place we have to live” (McCarthy 2015, p. 20). Like Francis and Pope Francis, McCarthy embraces an anthropology that places humans in interdependence with the natural world and sees this as the only hope for saving the natural environment and humanity.

There are many habits and practices humans need to change in order to save this planet where we live. Franciscan spirituality is well suited for such a conversion of spirit and habit based as it is in humility that repositions humanity in interdependence with all of creation through Christ as the center. The final offering of our physical bodies into this relationship of interdependence through green burial is a fitting pledge to this awareness.