Cremation, the Catholic Church's 1963 Permission (Wikipedia and Catholic Culture)

Wikipedia's article on cremation, read directly for this pass, states the Holy See formally banned cremation in 1886 in response to Masonic advocacy of the practice as a rejection of Christian resurrection belief, a prohibition carried into Canon 1203 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The ban was lifted in 1963, with priests permitted to officiate at cremation ceremonies from 1966. The Catholic Culture library's text of the instruction itself, cross-checked for this pass, names the instrument as Piam et Constantem, issued by the Holy Office and approved by Pope Paul VI on 5 July 1963, permitting cremation except where chosen as a denial of Christian teaching. The general custom of forbidding cremation among Catholics predates the 1886 formal ban by centuries; no source consulted for this pass gives a citable year for when that general custom itself began. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/