CORNELIUS — A Catholic section of Mt. Zion Community Cemetery was set aside as holy ground for the burial of the faithful departed during a solemn ceremony on Nov. 1, the feast of All Saints.
Led by Father John Putnam, pastor of nearby St. Mark Parish in Huntersville, the blessing rite featured prayers, scripture readings, and the sprinkling of holy water around the perimeter of the site.
The Catholic section can accommodate more than 250 gravesites with room to expand. The cemetery was originally established by Mt. Zion United Methodist Church, but now it is a separate cemetery for community use. It is situated within the boundaries of St. Mark Parish, which will manage the Catholic section.
The blessing of a Catholic cemetery carries deep significance, reminding the faithful of the promise of resurrection and eternal life. By virtue of this consecration, a Catholic cemetery becomes a sacred place and an extension of the church grounds. The visibility of a Catholic cemetery also serves as a reminder of the obligation to pray for the dead.
In his homily at the blessing service, Father Putnam noted the importance of having places where Catholics can find eternal rest, surrounded by symbols that remind them of their faith and the hope of resurrection.
“Our final resting place is something that we take very seriously,” he said. “We are body and soul, and we reverence the body as the vessel through which we interact with the world. It is the flesh that the Lord Himself took on and walked in this world so that we might know, first and foremost, of the Father’s abiding love and His victory over death.”
“We believe in the resurrection of the body on the last day,” he continued. “We see the cemetery as a place that's consecrated, a place where we bury our dead, but (also) a place where we come to remind ourselves that while our lives too will end in a place like this, it is not the end. We can always be hope-filled – that what Christ promised, ‘I am the resurrection and the life,’ indeed will be fulfilled.”
Northlake Memorial Gardens in Huntersville is the only other cemetery in northern Mecklenburg County with a dedicated section for Catholic burials. Other public cemeteries with Catholic sections located within the Diocese of Charlotte include Stanly Gardens in Albemarle, Sharon Memorial Park in Charlotte, Westlawn Cemetery in Clemmons, and Forest Lawn East Cemetery in Matthews.
For more information about the new Catholic section of Mt. Zion Community Cemetery, contact the St. Mark Parish Office at 704-948-0231, or Rodney Mayhew of Mt. Zion Community Cemetery at 704-892-8566.
— Bryan Somerville and Amy Burger
Pictured: Father John Putnam, pastor of St. Mark Parish, leads a blessing service for a new Catholic section of Mt. Zion Community Cemetery in Cornelius. The new section of more than 250 gravesites will be managed by St. Mark Parish.