[Question]{.underline}: Is it permissible to build over a cemetery?
[Answer:]{.underline} The answer to this question depends on whether the building is to be used for a sacred or profane use. It is certainly permissible to build sacred monuments or a mausoleum or a church building over tombs, for under special circumstances it is permitted to bury under a church, although not close to an altar. However, the construction of a building for non-consecrated uses would be equivalent to reducing the cemetery to a profane use. The building of a church hall or a school building or a conference center would all be considered as profane uses (although perfectly honest and good) and not consecrated ones. It would consequently be necessary to exhume all the bodies of the faithful departed and bury them in consecrated ground, with decree of the local Ordinary, before proceeding to such a building.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.