Jesuits can expand crowded cemetery, Lower Heidelberg zoning panel rules The Lower Heidelberg Zoning Hearing Board has unanimously approved the expansion of a cemetery at the Jesuit Center, a religious retreat east of North Church Road. The Rev. William P. Ryan, treasurer for the applicant, Maryland Province of Society of Jesus, testified that the 80-year-old cemetery's 200 or so burial plots are nearly all taken, with only four underground vaults remaining."More than half of the 360 priest-members in our province are over 65 years of age,"he said Tuesday. Ryan said the center wants to respect the original design of Charles F. Gilette, a prominent Virginia landscape architect of the early 20th century. Scott Miller of Stackhouse Bensinger Inc., Sinking Spring, testified that plans call for about 316 new grave sites to be laid out in two half-circles. A retaining wall at one of the semicircles will have a granite columbarium, or structure of vaults, with recesses for 216 urns containing cremated remains. Resident Robert A. Montgomery testified in support of the expansion.
"Nobody knows the cemetery is there now and won't know when the expansion is finished," said Montgomery, who lives along North Church Road.He and his wife, Susanne K., said the center has been a good neighbor to the area for the past 90 years. James E. Gavin of Masano Bradley in Wyomissing, attorneys for both the applicant and the owner, Jesuit Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues of Wernersville, said the cemetery is a nonconforming use in the agricultural preserve zoning district but predates the township's zoning ordinance.
- By Valdis I. Lacis
Link (here)
Photo of the headstone of Fr. Walter Ciszek, S.J. at the Jesuit Cemetery
2 comments:
The comment on urns struck me as odd considering the Church's consistent teaching since the beginning that people should be buried whole and not burned to pieces.
At the local Jesuit cemetery out here, I haven't seen any graves or other places for urns. Although this might be one of the more liberal Jesuit provinces, the fathers and brothers are still buried "standing."
Due to the weight of age in the Society of Jesus many burial plots will have to be extended in the next twenty years or new ones bought. Although it is rare for Jesuits to be cremated some are at their request. Others are occasionally buried in their own family plots, again at their request. Enormous demographic changes for Jesuits are on the horizon and they are likely to change their status as being the largest Order in the Church.
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