The traditional view: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04481c.htm
The “modern” view:
http://www.cathcemtoledo.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27&Itemid=41
Although cremation is permitted, Catholic teaching continues to stress the preference for burial or entombment of the body of the deceased. This is done in imitation of the burial of Jesus’ body. “This is the Body once washed in baptism, anointed with the oil of salvation, and fed with the bread of life. Our identity and self consciousness as a human person are expressed in and through the body . . .Thus, the Church’s reverence and care for the body grows out of a reverence and concern for the person whom the Church now commends to the care of God.”
My mother was cremated, I’m sorry to say. My father kept her ashes for a year, and then had them buried.