Cook County Slow To Respond To Archdiocese's Offer Of Free Burials
By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 29, 2012 9:30PM
Earlier this month, Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago made a generous offer to Cook County government: free burial for the stockpiled bodies at the Cook County morgue.
Catholic Cemeteries has done this before, when the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal was discovered in 2009.
The mess at the county morgue isn't going away, to say nothing of the public relations fallout of having nearly 500 bodies in a cooler designed to hold a maximum of 300. According to the Sun-Times, the county has so far not accepted the offer. Catholic Cemeteries head Roman Szabelski is at a loss as to why this is so.
“For whatever reason, they’re hesitant, or they don’t need” the help, he said. “There are families out there who need closure and the closure is being held up.“At this point, let’s start fresh and take care of these families and these people who are sitting in the morgue, waiting.”
Jessey Neves, spokeswoman for County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, said the county eventually does plan on accepting Catholic Cemeteries' offer, but wouldn't offer an exact date. She also said some of the bodies have been buried in Homewood Memorial Gardens recently. Given how the county has handled indigent burials in the past, one would think the county would be working with the Archdiocese to start burying some of these bodies.