One of my co-workers told me that the Pope hasn’t been enbalmed yet. Is this true? If he hasn’t how come? Is this some sort of tradition? Wouldn’t he be starting to decompose and stink by now?
I told him (my co-worker) he was wrong, but I can’t find the info anywhere.
USA Today
Vatican: John Paul II was not embalmed VATICAN CITY (AP) — Departing from tradition, Pope John Paul II was not embalmed, only “prepared” for viewing by hundreds of thousands of mourners, the Vatican said Tuesday.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls did not elaborate on the procedure, but an embalmer in Rome said it appeared John Paul’s remains were only touched up with cosmetics.
Massimo Signoracci, whose family embalmed three other popes, said he could not be certain what had been done without examining the body.
Signoracci said even a light embalming is necessary for a body that is exposed for several days.
John Paul died on Saturday, and his remains were put on public view late Monday on an open platform in St. Peter’s Basilica. He will be buried Friday.
Historically, organs were removed to make embalming more durable. Relics of 22 popes — from Sixtus V, who died in 1590, to Leo XIII, who died in 1903 — are kept in Rome’s St. Anastasio and Vincent Church, near the Trevi fountain.
Pope Pius X, who reigned from 1903 to 1914, abolished the custom of removing organs.
Embalming usually consists of draining the blood and other bodily fluids and intravenously injecting formaldehyde and other preserving liquids.
Signoracci said his family had embalmed the remains of John XXIII in 1963, and of Paul VI and John Paul I, who both died in 1978.
Paul VI was only lightly embalmed before his body was placed before the public during Rome’s hot summer. But after two days the skin and fingernails began losing their color.
John XXIII’s body, by contrast, was in excellent condition when it was exhumed from the cramped grotto under the basilica in 2001 — 38 years after his death — and moved to the main floor following his beatification.
John Paul II, who expressed a will to be buried underground, will be placed in John XXIII’s vacant tomb.
Embalming has to be one of the most unnatural things I can think of. I’m glad this Pope seems to have gone a slightly more natural route. Almost nothing disgusts me more than to think of some mortician draining out my blood and pumping me up with formaldehyde and then stuffing me into a cheap suit and placed in a frilly coffin. I find that horrifying. I would have thought most religions would be opposed to embalming on the grounds that it desecrates the human body that was made in God’s image, and that the important part to worry about after death is the soul, not the flesh.
Anybody else bothered by this?
Anybody else bothered by this?
Not really. And I’ll tell you this much - without embalming, anatomy lab would have been a truly miserable experience 
If one is going to display the body, some embalming needs to be done to retard decomposition and to prevent disease from spreading. I, personally, will just be direct-to-the-oven, thank you.
But just for an example, bodies are not embalmed like they used to be. After the body is drained of bodily fluids (and replaced with three different embalming chemicals), a hole in the abdomen (called the trochar flap) is made so the trochar can puncture the internal organs. Embalming powder is also used.
In the old days, internal organs were removed.
I think it is an incredible waste of money, myself, and would rather go directly to the crematorium with no memorial service.
Bury me deep by Poi Dog Pondering
A lifetime of accomplishments of which the dirt knows none,
only in death can one truly return
Return the carrots, the apples and potatoes,
The chickens, the cows, the fish and tomatoes.
In one glorious swoop, let the deed be done
and bury me deep so that I can be one…
And all around my muscle and all around my bone,
don’t incinerate me or seal me from
the dirt which bore me, the bed that which from
the rain falls upon and the fruit comes from
For the dirt is a blanket, no fiery tomb,
No punishment, reward, or pearly white room
And you who say that in death we will pay,
The dead they can’t hear a word that you say
Your words are not kind, sober or giving,
they only put fear in the hearts of the living
So put away your tongues and roll up your sleeves,
and pick up your shovel and bury me deep.
I agree with you 1000%. I don’t want to be pickled and put in a wood and iron box. I want to be gone back into everything. Embalming is nothing more then man’s fear of death. If I have learned one thing I am a memeber of the Cult Of Death the right came up with during the Terri Shivo disgrace. There is birth then there is death and our life in between. Death is not bad it is just an end of something that began.
My father has it in his will that he wants to be buried in a blanket on his farm in Oregon. I’m not sure it’s possible/legal, but us kids will do our best to fulfill his wishes once that sad day has come.
Way to go Dad! While that day will be terrible it might give you some comfort that he is part of the land he loves.
I am not really big on symbolism (I hate it to be blunt) but I want to be buried theh same way on my grandmothers farm and have a Mesquite tree planted over me.