Section of Holy Redeemer cemetery dedicated to Eastern Catholics

By Andrew Junker | June 18, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted said the Church showed its universal nature May 30 with the blessing and dedication of Resurrection Garden, an area of Holy Redeemer Cemetery that will be used to bury members of Eastern Catholic Churches.

“We believe in the resurrection of the dead,” the bishop said at the dedication. “We are people of hope, and hope is rooted in the victory of Christ over death.”

He also thanked all the Eastern Churches involved in making  Resurrection Garden a reality, which at its heart has been “the work of the Risen Christ and His Blessed Mother.”

The new section will be able to hold 2,000 burials and cost around $200,000 to create. A main feature of Resurrection Garden is a large mosaic and granite icon of Christ’s Resurrection.

There are 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches that are in communion with Pope Benedict XVI, while maintaining their own liturgical rites and devotions.

Some of these Churches in the Valley include the Melkite, Ukrainian, Byzantine, Chaldean and Maronite Churches. They will all be able to make use of the new cemetery section.

Bishop Gerald N. Dino of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Van Nuys was also on hand at the dedication, which included a Panachida liturgy. The service remembers and prays for the dead.

Bishop Dino spoke about the promise that Mary’s Assumption — or Dormition as it’s known in the East — holds for those who die.

“Mary’s presence in heaven body and soul is a promise that you and I will also be in heaven body and soul,” the bishop said. “Because of our belief in the resurrection of the soul and body, we Catholics have a great deal of respect for the bodies of the dead.”

Bishop Olmsted agreed.

“This element of our Catholic faith we have professed from the very beginning,” he said.

After the Panachida service, which featured prayers and hymns in a number of languages, the two bishops walked across the new section, sprinkling the land and icon with holy water. 

In addition to accommodating burials for local Eastern Catholic Churches, the area will also assist those still living, Bishop Olmsted said. He hoped Resurrection Garden would become a “source of consolation for the families of those buried here.”