The other day, two Polish women, friends of the excommunicated priest Reverend Kozlowski, came to a certain Chicago pastor to inquire about their lots in the Polish-Bohemian Catholic cemetery. These confused women could not understand why they could not bury dead members of their family on a parcel of ground which they had paid for.

According to canon law, not a handful of ground in a sacred cemetery can be sold for complete possession to anybody. If a certain space or lot is set aside for somebody for a certain price, then the money is simply considered an offering paid for the privilege of burying the dead on a family plot. The lot continues under the control of the cemetery administration, or in other words, continues to be church property. The church watches to see that the purchaser does not desecrate the Catholic cemetery with the corpses of people who did not die as Catholics.

If, therefore, a family which owns a lot, renounces the church, it forfeits the right to bury its dead there. It cannot demand a return of its money from the cemetery administration. The cemetery administration did not force them to renounce their faith.

On the other hand, the cemetery administration cannot forfeit this lot, if it is paid for. The cemetery administration does not have the right to inquire into the religious conduct of those who purchase lots. The administration obeys the orders of the pastor of the church, in other words receives a permit from him to bury the dead.

Do not listen, therefore, to these "independent humbugs," and you will rest in peace in a Catholic cemetery.