Religious burials "public spectacle"


 By Eric Gorski
 Denver Post Staff Writer  

 Saturday, January 22, 2005



 In the latest twist in a tale that has inflamed passions over abortion rights and drawn national attention, a Boulder abortion doctor contends a mortuary violated a contract prohibiting it from using cremated fetal remains from his clinic in religious ceremonies.

 Since 2001, Crist Mortuary has been incinerating tissue from Dr. Warren Hern's clinic and giving the ashes to Sacred Heart of Mary Parish in Boulder without Hern's knowledge. The church has been burying the remains in its cemetery quietly for years but created a controversy last week when it went public with plans to bury another batch after 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

 After initially declining to discuss his clinic's arrangements with the mortuary, Hern volunteered details: Under a contract in place since 2001, Crist is not to dispose of the ashes in religious ceremonies without the clinic's permission. He said ashes that go unclaimed by patients are to be buried in the mortuary's cemetery. Hern declined to say whether he would sue.

 "My patients are calling, and they're furious and horrified because they have worked through this," Hern said. "They're furious at Crist Mortuary and the Catholic Church for making a public spectacle in this macabre death ritual."

 Terry Hemeyer, managing director of Houston-based Service Corporations International in Houston, which owns Crist Mortuary and more than 1,600 funeral homes, crematories and cemeteries in North America, said Friday he knew no details of the contract but that no harm was intended.

 "Basically, Crist Mortuary cremated these fetal remains at the request of the clinic," he said. "The church cemetery had a site for the ashes to be placed and was willing to take them. There was no intent by the mortuary to make any political or religious statement. We, as funeral directors, are always trying to handle remains with respect, and I think that's what happened here."

 To spread word about its "Memorial Wall for the Unborn," marked with plaques from parents who have experienced abortions, the parish decided to publicize this weekend's events even if it meant the end of receiving ashes from Hern's Boulder Abortion Clinic.

 The unorthodox arrangement has drawn praise from abortion-rights opponents who see it as a way to provide dignity for what they believe are lost human lives and criticism from abortion-rights supporters who call it an invasion of privacy that retraumatizes women. A state health department official said no laws were broken.

 About 200 people assembled at the parish Friday night for a candlelight service commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

 After Mass, a procession went into the cemetery and to the memorial wall, where they prayed for the unborn.

 Two women showed up to protest the vigil and sat on the ground with their backs to the service.

 "If one of my fetuses were in the ground, I would be upset," said one of the women who identified herself as Mel, 30, of Boulder.

 Catherine, a 29-year-old woman from Boulder, said she disagreed with the vigil because the church did not seek consent to bury the remains from the women who had the abortions.

 "They are supposed to be a service to the community," she said of the church. "If they wanted this to be a service, they would have made it quieter instead of front-page news. They would not have made this a political statement."

 Gloria Rozzo, a parishioner of the church, said she has written letters to Hern and Gov. Bill Owens to express her feelings about abortion and the disposal of remains.

 "This is not a political statement," she said after the vigil. "It's just meant to be a place for women to come and heal. Those remains are human remains, and that deserves respectful treatment whether a woman wants them to or not."

 Diane Sillstrop of Longmont also attended the vigil even though she had an abortion in 1976, when she was 21.

 She works now to help women recover from the pain of abortion and often brings them to the wall for solace.

 "It has everything to do with life and loss of it," she said. "There are physical remains that have to be dealt with. It's not to make the parents who had the abortion feel bad."