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May 24, 2018
Tom Burke
Mark Twain’s remains lie in New York but a paraphrase of his remark about statements regarding his death being greatly exaggerated lives on at Holy Cross Cemetery, Colma, where reports of the cemetery running out of space are just as overstated.
“Yes, despite the predicament that other cemeteries are facing, Holy Cross is blessed to have over 100 acres of land that are yet to be developed,” Monica Williams, director of cemeteries of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, told Catholic San Francisco. Williams said some neighboring cemeteries “are approaching a crisis of space” and “a few have approached us with an interest in purchasing land from us.”
Williams affirmed the cemetery’s mission: “Our ministry is to provide the corporal work of mercy, burying the dead, and the spiritual work of mercy to pray for the dead for as long as possible.” The cemetery’s “business plan” is “long-term in nature,” she said, and the fact that the cemetery has made careful plans for assisting Catholic families into the future should be no surprise.
In 1886, Archbishop Patrick Riordan purchased approximately 300 acres of land in Colma. Holy Cross Cemetery opened a year later: “Since that time, we have been operating on 200 of the original 300 acres and are not close to capacity on that parcel of land,” Williams said. “We serve over 1,600 families each year. As the number of cremations has increased, we have made many options available to those choosing cremation” including cremation graves, niches, columbarium placement and placement of the urn in an existing family site enabling “family members to be interred together and conserve space. We anticipate being able to provide Christian burial to the members of the Catholic community in our archdiocese for well over a hundred years.”
The state of California requires that endowment funds be established for cemeteries to provide for the maintenance and care of cemeteries after they cease to be able to generate revenue as an active cemetery, Williams said. Each time a person purchases the rights to a space at Holy Cross, a portion of that purchase is designated for the Endowment Care Fund. She also noted that “in-perpetuity doesn’t exist in legal cemetery language any longer” and cemeteries throughout the country handle that intent differently.
“New Orleans has a ‘rental’ set-up where you can continue to lease the space or the cemetery will move the remains to a common site, and ‘re-use’ the space,” Williams said. That mode is seen in other countries, as well, she said. “We’re nowhere near even considering such a thing in our area.”