What is the Catholic stance on cremation?

[Buckeye1010]

Hi just quickly wanted to know what the Catholic teaching is on cremation? My wife keeps saying she wants to be cremated when she dies (we are young so it hopefully will be 50+ years down the road)…she is also Catholic but she doesn’t want to take up space in a cemetery. Anyway I seem to have thought that it is ok now…but I really don’t remember what the stance of the Church is…? Thanks

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

From canon law

Can. 1176 §1. Deceased members of the Christian faithful must be given ecclesiastical funerals according to the norm of law.

§2. Ecclesiastical funerals, by which the Church seeks spiritual support for the deceased, honors their bodies, and at the same time brings the solace of hope to the living, must be celebrated according to the norm of the liturgical laws.

§3. The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burying the bodies of the deceased be observed; nevertheless, the Church does not prohibit cremation unless it was chosen for reasons contrary to Christian doctrine.:

 

[TheLittleLady]

This and the ashes/cremains must be buried or interred in a columbarium. No scattering or saving or making into keepsakes.

 

[OddBird]

I live in a tiny country with very little flat land and little space in cemeteries. 90% of people here, Protestants and Catholics, are cremated after their deaths.