Those poor children.  

It's a disgrace the chapel the priest is from or CMRI did not pay for this.

If the chapel was small or a mission I'm sure CMRI could come up with $10,000 balance to help a low-income family bury their young mother.

I'm the pre-VII Church helped SOME with burial expenses. It's a work of mercy we should do for pagans never mind a poor Catholic family.

Those poor children.  

It's a disgrace the chapel the priest is from or CMRI did not pay for this.

It is a disgrace that you find fault with a good priest and congregation when there is no fault present.

Shame on you.

The good priest has done what he can to help the family, especially with their spiritual needs, which is his primary duty. And he has gone over and above to spread the word far and wide about their need for prayers and money.

You would be very blessed to have him for your priest but from what you have written you probably would not appreciate him or be grateful to him or God.

Don't you suppose the exorbitant Funeral industry was designed or created to encourage people, even Catholics, to resort to cremation as a cheaper alternative? You don't need a concrete vault or even a coffin-sized burial plot when you just have a few ashes in an urn.

For that matter, the exorbitant Wedding Reception industry was probably designed and fostered to encourage young people to forgo marriage as being too expensive -- to encourage shacking up. They made college expensive, jobs harder to get, in general harder for guys to get established, meanwhile they encourage women to wait for their prince, while building up a nice career of their own --

I just see again and again the world being designed against Catholic morality and ideals. They want to force us to compromise on our beliefs for practical or economic reasons. Not just in one area, but AGAIN and AGAIN. It's how they wield their power.

See what an uphill battle we face as Catholics?

Where is our resident funeral director when we need him to advise us on what is necessary and what is superfluous?

People in general want to give their loved one a "good send-off", but where does common sense come in?

That is why I was so impressed by the aforementioned mother of 5. She was a Kiwi and he an Irishman and they lived in Australia.

Somebody mentioned that the law kept the prices up, but I really doubt it. It's like when people say you MUST vaccinate your kids, or you MUST send them to school.

Some people pay into a funeral fund for most their adult lives.

Just throwing thoughts out. There must be a way around bleeding the bereaved dry.  

I'm not finding fault with the congregation or priest.  They may attend a mission of 2 families for all I know. I said if it was a mission or small chapel CMRI should take care of it.
Dismissing it not as spiritual is not the duty of the Church is wrong. The Church should not be fragmented from material needs. It's disgrace this family must go begging on the internet for debt from burying their mother instead of CMRI taking care of it.

Earlier you wrote: “It's a disgrace the chapel the priest is from or CMRI did not pay for this.”

Now you are saying: “It's disgrace this family must go begging on the internet for debt from burying their mother instead of CMRI taking care of it.”

PS.  feel free to help the poor family instead of throwing stones at others!

PPS. How do you think the family will feel if they see what you have written against their chapel and the congregation the priest belongs to who has helped them so much?

My criticism is of the CMRI ...

Stop right there.  Your criticism is of the CMRI, period, and you will pick up any stick you happen to find in order to beat them with it.  It's ok to tell the family to beg from families in the chapel, who are probably not much better off financially that they are, but not on the internet?  What a ridiculous comment!

Again, the CMRI is not made of money.  They don't have envelopes with Ten Grand in them to pay for every funeral.  If they did, they wouldn't be engaging in fund raisers for various projects and purchases so frequently.

To Nadir:  As for the law keeping prices up, in most places in the United States that is absolutely true.  The funeral you described earlier would be illegal in many places in the United States.  There are very specific requirements in many jurisdictions for coffins and a home-made coffin would not be buried in many cemeteries.  How are the poor buried?  If someone is not willing to go into debt, the government will cremate the deceased and inter the ashes in a mixed grave (in some places) but the cost of obtaining the ashes is low enough that they can usually find someone willing to pay the bill for an urn.