The modern American-style funeral

Totally DIY:

HOCKINGPORT, Ohio -- Jesse Hayes' family, already overcome by grief after he died in a house fire last month, quickly had to come to grips with another unthinkable reality.

With no money for a funeral, they would have to bury him themselves.

And so the day before Hayes' graveside service Oct. 15, his cousin and a handful of volunteers gathered with their shovels at Stewart Cemetery, a quiet spot in the woods not far from the Ohio River in southern Ohio.

They spent four hours digging with the shovels before finally being forced to bring in a backhoe when they hit rock about 3 feet down.

After a brief graveside service the next day, the family went to the nearby Lions Club for a meal provided by friends while the volunteers returned to cover the casket with dirt, finishing the grim task.

From the Columbus Dispatch, via zadok in this iTulip thread. This wasn't always so:

The state once provided assistance for indigent funerals, but the aid was eliminated a few years ago and not restored in this year's budget. The burden had fallen to counties, townships, churches and community groups to bury the dead when money is short. But many of those sources are running dry, too.

"Now, what's started happening is people are digging their own graves to make it more affordableit's the result of a long cycle of picking away at programs and cutting benefits, and because the economy is bad, other resources that may have been available before just aren't anymore," said Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services.

It's noteworthy to see the responses, both the comments on the story itself and the replies in the thread. One of the comments reads as follows:

This is a tough situation .......... been there and done that .......... my brothers and I dig our father's grave , there wasn't enough money . But we understood , that is not the Governments responsibility , it first of all was our job to provide for our own, and when that isn't possible , it is the church, that needs to step in , even if they were not members , and of course the relatives and community are responsible.

My emphasis. How ironic that many people support separation of church and state, but then advocate that most of the state's functions be transferred to the church.

Harper allegedly desecrates body of Christ

He's accused of improperly taking Communion at Romeo LeBlanc's funeral, and possibly pocketing the magic cookie:

A senior New Brunswick Roman Catholic priest is demanding the Prime Minister's Office explain what happened to the sacramental communion wafer Stephen Harper was given at Roméo LeBlanc's funeral mass.

During communion at the solemn and dignified service held last Friday in Memramcook for the former governor general, the prime minister slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call "the host" into his jacket pocket.

In Catholic understanding, the host - once consecrated by a priest for the Eucharist - becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It is crucial that the small wafer be consumed when it is received.

Monsignor Brian Henneberry, vicar general and chancellor in the Diocese of Saint John, wants to know whether the prime minister consumed the host and, if not, what happened to it.

If Harper accepted the host but did not consume it, "it's worse than a faux pas, it's a scandal from the Catholic point of view," he said.

Henneberry said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office is in order.

"If I were the prime minister, I would at least offer an explanation to say no offence was meant, and then (clarifying) what happened to the consecrated host is in order," he said. "I would hope the Prime Minister's Office would have enough respect for the Catholic Church and for faith in general to make clear whatever happened."

On Friday, during the mass, Harper reached out with his right hand and accepted the wafer from a priest.

A television camera lingered long enough to show New Brunswick Lt.-Gov. Herménégilde Chiasson, the next person to receive the host, raise his to his mouth.

But the tape shows that Harper does not consume the wafer before the camera cuts away several seconds later.

If Harper was unclear about what was appropriate during the funeral mass, said Henneberry, it "would say to me it's time to get new protocol people."

From the Telegraph-Journal, via babble. From my point of view, this is pretty minor compared to Harper's real sins; however, from the point of view of right-wing Catholics, it could come as a bit of a shock. Looking at this issue in isolation I could have some sympathy for him; he may well have meant no offense and simply not known the protocol. But heck, even I know that non-Catholics aren't supposed to take the cookie, and I'm not Prime Minister, nor even one of his advisors. You'd think someone would have briefed him about it.

Then again, maybe he really did palm the wafer instead of eating it, perhaps as a result of reading this.