Catholicism: Memento Mori in Christianity? In this video, the priest says that Memento Mori is an  integral part of Christianity. He says that priests and nuns used to place skulls on their desks to remind them of their impending death. I have few problems with that:


It doesn't seem a christian thing to do
It's creepy
Most importantly, you are stealing someone skull from the grave, according to Christianity, we should be buried, even if you take the skull of a none christian, it's disrespectful.


What does the Catholic Church has to say about that?
Memento Mori, or remembering one's death/mortality in order to live well, is definitely a Christian tradition rooted in Scripture (see Sirach 7:36, Psalm 90:12, Luke 9:23). 

As for the skull on the desk, I think Father Schmitz is probably referring to something that I started on Twitter. I keep a skull on my desk (ceramic) to remind me of my death and started tweeting about it last year. The founder of my religious order, Blessed James Alberione, also keep one on his desk (also not real) to remind him of his inevitable death. I have found evidence of a couple other people in the history of the Church who kept skulls on their desks as a memento mori. Pope Alexander VII commissioned a marble skull from Bernini to keep on his desk. Saint John Fisher reportedly kept a skull on his desk and his table when he ate. If real skulls were ever used to meditate on death, I assume they were kept respectfully as relics and not used as mere props. Today, keeping a real human skull on one's desk definitely would not be appropriate according to Catholic teaching as human remains should be buried.