COMFORT AND BEREAVEMENT

Each person dies an individual death which too often brings mixed emotions.  The Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries ministers to the various emotional needs of our families in various ways.

ENVIRONMENT

St. Augustine reminds us, cemeteries are for the living.  Every year hundreds visit grave sites of family and friends in the Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries, in all seasons and in all kinds of weather. Family members decorate grave sites on holidays, holy days and days of significance in the life of the deceased.  The Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries are also a place where the living come to grieve, to remember, to reminisce, and to pray.

The cemetery staff strive to insure cemetery grounds are well maintained and manicured worthy of respect the Catholic Church has for its beloved dead.  All activities within our cemeteries contribute to an awareness of their sacred character of Catholic cemeteries.  It is intended that the surroundings be beautiful, peaceful, conducive to prayer and reflection.

In the Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries, no one is buried, entombed or inurned without a witness and a prayer.

CARE NOTES©

The cemetery offices of St. Joseph and New Calvary Catholic Cemeteries provide the popular “take one” Care Notes© booklets.  Care Notes© support literature brings messages of hope and compassion to those who recently suffered a loss, are grieving or know someone who is dying.
  

HOLIDAY REMEMBRANCE TREE

New Calvary Catholic Cemetery offers family members the opportunity to remember loved ones who are entombed and inurned in the Mausoleum at New Calvary by placing an individualized ornament in the chapel Christmas tree.   Visit or contact the office at New Calvary Catholic Cemetery (810-732-2620) for more details.

JERUSALEM COMFORT CROSS™

 

Quarried in the Holy Land, the Jerusalem Stone Cross™ has been cut into two pieces: one piece to place in the casket of the deceased and  the other to keep as a remembrance of one's loved one. as gift to be place in the casket/ urn of the deceased loved.

 

 

ABANDONED CREMATED HUMAN REMAINS

As an act of charity and respect, St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery and New Calvary Catholic Cemetery provide a common interment space for cremated human remains which are unclaimed after the cremation process has been completed.  With the cooperation of local funeral homes, cremated human remains previously left in storage rooms awaiting final interment, are now identified and entombed in a common mausoleum crypt. 

BURIAL OF PRE-BORN CHILDREN

In clinical terms, they are called products of conception. In the Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries, we prefer babies. Rather than disposal, we offer burial. They are children who do not come to full-term development in the womb.  The Diocese of Lansing Diocesan Cemeteries provides burial assistance to grieving families by providing them with burial space for their infant.  This service is provided at no cost to families.

 

RACHEL MEMORIALS

The Rachel Memorials are designated as a place to find comfort to those families who have lost a child, born or unborn and stand as a sign that the lives of all children deserve reverence and respect as part of God’s loving creation.

The St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery Rachel Memorial is placed in the old children’s section of St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery where the remains of forty aborted children were interred on January 8, 1990. (On November 20, 2010, seventeen aborted remains were interred in the new Guardian Angels Section).

Dedicated on May 18, 1995, the New Calvary Catholic Cemetery ,Rachel Memorial is a gift to the Flint Catholic Community from the Msgr. Patrick R. Dunnigan Knights of Columbus Council 695.

“Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.  Thus says the  Lord, 'Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes.  The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward.' " - Jeremiah 31:15-16                                                        

 NATIONAL CATHOLIC MINISTRY TO THE BEREAVED

The Diocese of Lansing Cemeteries is a member of the National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved and we hope to introduce some N.C.M.B. programs in the future.