167 unclaimed cremains interred in Worcester

By Maria LeDoux
Associate editor | CFP

From infants to individuals over 90 years old, cremated remains of 167 people who were without a proper burial place and left at funeral homes in Worcester were interred on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day, at Notre Dame Mausoleum, part of the diocesan cemetery system.  
Out of these 167 individuals, the oldest date of death went back to 1930, before Worcester had a crematorium, according to James F. Brasco, director of the Diocesan Cemeteries Office. The most recent remains were from about 2018. The law requires  funeral homes to hold onto these remains for one year, Mr. Brasco said.
Among the remains were two babies, a 3-year-old, a 19-year-old, and a 20-year-old. The rest varied in age up to around 90 years old.  
The cremated remains, in either a nondescript crematory container or an urn which was labeled with a number, were all placed in one casket. The casket was then placed in a crypt in the mausoleum. It reads: “In memory of those who await in the hope of the resurrection of the body.”
Names were not included on the individual’s remains, however, the cemetery system is keeping records with names corresponding to the number.   
Those searching for the burial place of a loved one, including the individuals who were interred on Nov. 2, can be found through discovereverafter.com, an international cemetery database.  
“If someone is searching,” Mr. Brasco said, “they are going to find them.”
A Mass was celebrated at the mausoleum by Bishop McManus on All Souls’ Day. Before the final blessing, Bishop McManus, concelebrants, and those present processed to the outdoor crypt where a commendation and committal of the deceased occurred.  
Six Worcester funeral homes and St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish provided unclaimed remains, Mr. Brasco said.
Yvette Caez-Maldonado, senior administrator at Notre Dame Cemetery and Mausoleum, did her “due diligence” in researching each of 167 individuals, he said.  
“It was hard ... It was emotionally difficult to see this part of our humanity was left behind,” he said.  
“Because of that, that is what made her do more research,” added Michele McCarthy, business manager of the cemetery system.
Mrs. Caez-Maldonado discovered that one of the unclaimed remains had a pre-purchased place of burial within the diocesan cemetery system. Cemetery records showed that this man, who died on Dec. 28, 2013, had purchased a lot in 1986 for himself and his parents in Notre Dame Cemetery. Plans are being made to lay him to rest where he had intended many decades ago.  
“It is where he wanted to be,” Mr. Brasco said.
Things like this should remind and “encourage people to talk about what they want” when they die, Mr. Brasco said. This is “a reminder that prompts you to have those discussions with your family.”  
This interment of unclaimed remains was “proposed as an annual event,” Mr. Brasco said. “There are probably more out there.”
“The staff did an amazing job putting things together, under time constraints, to coincide [the interment] with the All Souls’ Day Mass … It was a target date. November is the month in the Catholic calendar that asks for Catholics to remember our deceased, visit cemeteries, and remember,” he said. It is important to bury cremated remains in a sacred place, like the cemeteries, so that people can come together to pray for the deceased, he stressed.