“This is returning us to the dust as promised,” she argued. “It is the most respectful way to treat a human being.” She argued that the Catholic Church was “opposed to cremation until the early ’70s” and that “it is time for them to update their thinking.” The Vatican first explicitly allowed cremation for Catholic burials in 1963.
State Rep. Tom O’Dea, meanwhile, said none of his constituents have voiced any support or desire for the measure. “I don’t understand the need for it; I don’t know anyone who wants to do it,” he said.
The idea of human composting, O’Dea said, conflicts with his Catholic faith. “It’s not the proper way we’re supposed to honor our remains,” he said.
He further disputed the environmental benefits of the practice. “My understanding is there’s a CO2 component to it, because cremation creates carbon,” he said. “And my response is, there’s a whole lot of ways to address carbon without having human composting.”
O’Dea said the measure seems unlikely to pass with what little time lawmakers have left. “In Connecticut we’re in a short session,” he said. “I don’t see it passing in Connecticut this year. That doesn’t mean they’re not going to bring it up again, but I don’t see a strong desire for it during an election year.”
In 2022, the California Catholic Conference raised objections similar to the U.S. bishops when that state moved to legalize human composting that year.
Kathleen Domingo, the executive director of the California Catholic Conference, said at the time that the use of a body composting method originally developed for farm animals creates an “unfortunate spiritual, emotional, and psychological distancing from the deceased.”
In addition, she said, the process “reduces the human body to simply a disposable commodity.”
Catholic opposition has also been raised in the state of Maryland, where a measure introduced last year sought to greenlight the use of “natural organic reduction” in state crematorium facilities.
The Maryland Catholic Conference said in a statement last year that the human composting process “reduces the human body to a disposable commodity.”
“The practice of respectfully burying the bodies or the honoring of ashes of the deceased comports with the virtually universal norm of reverence and care towards the deceased,” the conference said. The proposal is reportedly coming before the Legislature again this year.
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The Connecticut law, meanwhile, stipulates that human composting be available in the state no later than 2026.
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