Cremation - Scattering of the Ashes - Inurnment

In 2001, a law was finally passed, in Italy, to make cremation easier, authorising the scattering of the ashes or their placement in an urn to be kept at home.

The first thing to do is to seek the assistance of a funeral home, because the process requires a certain degree of red tape and funeral directors are best placed to deal with all the formalities involved.

   

Deceased person with family members who may authorise the cremation:
The closest family members of the deceased person (spouse or children or parents or siblings, and so on until the 6^th degree of direct kinship) is required to file an AFFIDAVIT (sworn statement), to the effect that he or she, while still ALIVE, had expressed the wish to be cremated. The affidavit must be accompanied by a photocopy of valid ID of all the family members who are required to sign it. The funeral home must be able to tell you exactly which family members may authorise a cremation and produce the AFFIDAVIT form. If it is unable to do so then it is clearly unqualified and will only waste your time.

Deceased person without any family members who may authorise the cremation:
In this case, the person, while still in life, must register with one of the Cremation Societies, where an in-house notary will record the wish to be cremated and will then act as executor instead of a family member. The cost of this service may vary, and generally consists simply of an annual membership fee. The person’s wishes are valid only until the membership expires. The funeral director will then go to the specified Cremation Society to collect the documents and apply for authorisation from the competent authorities. Alternatively, a person may simply express his or her wish to be cremated in a WILL. In this case, the authorisation for cremation may be obtained only after the will is published, which may entail a longer process.

Deceased person with family members who may authorise the scattering of ashes:
In this case too it is absolutely necessary that the deceased person expressed the wish, while still in life, to have his or her ashes scattered. The ashes may then be scattered only in one of the places specified in a special list kept by the local authorities.

The applicable law, in fact, states that: “the scattering of ashes is allowed, in accordance with the deceased person’s last wishes, only in the specifically assigned area of a cemetery, in nature, or in a private area; in the latter case, the ashes must be scattered outdoors and with the consent of the owners, and must not give rise to profit-making activities in any way; the scattering of ashes is prohibited in inhabited areas, in accordance with article 3(1)(8) of Legislative Decree 285/1992 (The New Highway Code); the scattering of ashes in the sea, lakes and rivers is allowed only in areas free of craft and buildings”.

The closest family members of the deceased person (spouse or children or parents or siblings, and so on until the 6^th degree of direct kinship) is required to file an AFFIDAVIT (sworn statement), to the effect that he or she, while still ALIVE, had expressed the wish to be cremated and his or her ashes scattered. The affidavit must be accompanied by a photocopy of valid ID of all the family members who are required to sign it. The funeral home must be able to tell you exactly which family members may authorise a cremation and produce the AFFIDAVIT form. If it is unable to do so then it is clearly unqualified and will only waste your time.


Deceased person without any family members who may authorise the scattering of ashes:
Lacking any family members, the WISH EXPRESSED by the deceased person, while still in life, to have his or her body cremated and ashes scattered, must be recorded by a notary public and carried out by an EXECUTOR, or by one of the legally recognised Cremation Societies, failing which the ashes MAY NOT BE SCATTERED. In this case, however, it shall still be possible to proceed with the cremation, but the ashes must then be buried.

The law states the following:
d) the ashes shall be scattered by the spouse, or other eligible family member, the executor of the deceased person’s last will and testament, or by the legal representative of the society referred to in b), number 2), of which the deceased person was a registered member, or, failing which, by a person authorised by the competent local authority;
e) without prejudice to the obligation to seal the urn, the manner of preservation of the ashes shall enable the identification of the deceased person and, in accordance with the deceased person’s last wishes, shall provide for either its burial/interment, in the ground or in an above-ground niche, or its safe-keeping by a family member.

   

Deceased person with family members who may authorise the placing of the ashes in an urn:
The placing of ashes in an urn also requires the prior EXPRESSION OF THE DECEASED PERSON’S WISH, while still in life, to be cremated and to have the ashes inurned and given to a family member for safe-keeping.

The closest family members of the deceased person (spouse or children or parents or siblings, and so on until the 6^th degree of direct kinship) is required to file an AFFIDAVIT (sworn statement), to the effect that he or she, while still ALIVE, had expressed the wish to be cremated. The affidavit must be accompanied by a photocopy of valid ID of all the family members who are required to sign it. The funeral home must be able to tell you exactly which family members may authorise a cremation and produce the AFFIDAVIT form. If it is unable to do so then it is clearly unqualified and will only waste your time.

If the ashes are to be placed in an urn in the same commune in which the deceased person passed away, the funeral director shall prepare the necessary documents and present them to the local authority, while awaiting an appointment for collecting the urn from the crematorium. On the day of the appointment, the family member requesting the ashes must go to the cemetery, with valid ID, to sign the paperwork and collect the urn.

If the person applying for the collection of the ashes lives in a different commune from the one in which the deceased person passed away, the funeral director must first of all make sure that the local authority of destination authorises the collection of ashes (not all local authorities grant this authorisation). Once this has been established, the funeral director must prepare the paperwork for transporting the ashes to another commune and hand over the documents and the urn to the family member, who shall then be responsible for transporting the urn to the commune of destination, present the paperwork to the competent local officials and apply for the authorisation to keep the urn in their home. The time required for this process may change from place to place, but while awaiting the authorisation the urn containing the deceased person’s ashes must always be kept at the cemetery’s mortuary chapel.

Deceased person with family members who may authorise the placing of the ashes in an urn:In this case also the wish to have one’s ashes placed inside an urn must be expressed by the person while still in life, either by making a will before a notary public or by registering with a legally recognised Cremation Society.

   

Even if the deceased person is to be cremated it will be necessary to purchase a wood coffin or casket (regardless of whether or not a religious ceremony is celebrated). The cremation process, in fact, requires the body to be burnt while in a coffin. The furnace reaches a very high temperature (up to 1000°), which means that the wood is entirely pulverised by the intense heat and only the ashes of the bones remain. Cremation is, to all intents and purposes, a funeral service and the coffin is transported to the crematorium in a hearse. It is then carried into a chapel by pallbearers, accompanied by the family members, for a religious or other ceremony, and all the necessary paperwork is also prepared, such as:

There is no fixed cost for a cremation service, which, like all other funeral service, may vary depending on:

There are too many different factors involved so it is impossible to provide a single price. It is important to have a funeral director you can trust to discuss the various types of services, the prices and for information and clarification.