In February 1949, twenty-five cemetery officials representing a like number of Archdioceses and Dioceses, met in Chicago to conclude a ten year journey which culminated in the establishment of the National Catholic Cemetery Conference.

Renamed the Catholic Cemetery Conference in 2006 in recognition of the international constituency of its membership, the CCC is the preeminent vehicle manifesting the guiding principle of the Conference that Burial of the Dead is one of the Corporal Works of Mercy.

The Catholic Cemetery Conference, recognized as a Catholic organization by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), includes in its membership individuals from 149 dioceses in 46 states and 5 provinces in Canada. These members include smaller, individual parish cemeteries as well as larger, multi-cemetery diocesan cemetery operations.