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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

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Gravestone for the year 2018 under or nearby which the cremated remains of 1,780 persons who died unclaimed are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights.  Photo by David DeCosse

Gravestone for the year 2018 under or nearby which the cremated remains of 1,780 persons who died unclaimed are buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights. Photo by David DeCosse

What a Burial Service for 1,780 Unclaimed Dead Tells us About Dignity

David DeCosse, director of religious and Catholic ethics, published in the National Catholic Reporter.

The service at the LA gravesite occurred at a time of increased polarization among U.S. Catholics over many issues. One such point of difference is a dispute over the meaning of human dignity — a dispute with great consequences for how the church engages our culture.

As David DeCosse, director of religious and Catholic ethics at the Center, says: "let us remember the dignity imparted by divine love to each unclaimed person buried near the rushing traffic on Lorena Street. And let us remember the task of our own dignity to seek the redemption of the principalities and powers that caused these 1,780 dignified persons to die unclaimed."

David DeCosse, director of religious and Catholic ethics, published in the National Catholic Reporter.

 

Ethics
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