If a body is cremated and the ashes are scattered rather than being buried,
will the soul be re-united with the body at the final judgment?

Allow me to state some important background information about this increasingly popular phenomenon. In 1997, the US Catholic Bishops allowed funeral masses to be said in the presence of cremated remains.

It is preferred that the deceased body be present at the funeral liturgy in a coffin. Funeral homes offer reasonable coffins to place the body in for a funeral liturgy. However, permission can be given to have the funeral mass said in the presence of the cremated remains.

In all cases of cremation, the remains must be entombed in a grave or columbarium, or mausoleum preferably with a marker. In no way should the remains be kept in a persons home, or scattered at sea. This disallows the reverent respect for the remains that the Church desires. All respect that would be given to a body in a coffin, should be given to remains that are to be cremated. (http://www.arlingtonmortuary.com/catholiccremation).

No matter what happens to a person’s body on earth or at death, Catholics believe that soul and body will be together in heaven. St. Thomas Aquinas affirmed this age as being the prime of life, where a person reaches their full potential of emotional and physical vigor. This theory is comforting to parents who have lost an unborn child as well as those who have had deformities in this life