FOOTBALL club songs and pop music have been banned from Catholic funerals in Australia under strict guidelines sent to priests and funeral directors.
The guidelines, sent by Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart, also declare that a funeral should not be a “celebration” of the deceased’s life. They say any such celebration should be done at a social occasion before or after the funeral.
The guidelines say:
Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs.
But outspoken Catholic priest Fr Bob Maguire described the new rules as “insensitive”.
Father Bob Maguire outside his parish in South Melbourne. Picture: Fiona Hamilton Source: Herald Sun
Around 10 percent of Catholics will feel more comfortable with these sanitised rituals, but the other 90 percent want these rituals to reflect their lives.
He added that the rules posed a dilemma for clergymen:
If the bosses say you can’t do it, then we’re in a position where we have to say you can’t do it. You either keep your job and lose the people, or you keep the people and lose your job.
But Bishop Les Tomlinson, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, stood by the guidelines, saying that the main focus of a funeral should be:
Commending the deceased person to God.
He added:
Reminiscences of the events of the deceased person’s life, hobbies or football interests are more appropriate for a wake or informal family gathering outside of the funeral.
A Herald Sun survey two years ago found the Collingwood theme song was one of the most popular requests at funerals.
Other popular songs included My Way by Frank Sinatra, Time to Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, and Bette Midler’s version of The Wind Beneath My Wings.
General manager of Le Pine Funerals, John Fowler, said funeral directors acknowledged church rules.
But he said many grieving families wanted to incorporate multimedia presentations, including photographs and video of the deceased person’s life.
Funerals have become a celebration of people’s lives and there aren’t many that don’t include a DVD presentation. It really gives you a sense of the joy that this person has brought to the world.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 10th, 2010 at 9:59 am
The Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart has probably got far too many people coming to his local church, especially at funerals. This is an excellent way of putting them off and reducing catholic congregations. May I recommend a good send off at a Humanist funeral where, I believe, priests are discouraged from attending unless in a box.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Good, actually: why allow last-minute, Paschal’s-bet-covering pseudo-believers access to the domain of the fully delusional? Get the demarcation lines clear and goalposts planted: these are the manipulative tools of religion, anyway. As long as we realists can reserve the reciprocal right to turf out any religion based on mythology and not on Sinatra.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:54 am
Whilst I agree that some funerals these days can be – well, a little tacky – I get REALLY pissed off with people who try to tell others how they should mark the passing of a loved one. Still, we’ll all be having an enormous knees-up when Ratty pops his clogs, won’t we? Have you got another appropriate cover illustration ready Barry?
September 10th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Lovely poll inside to accompany the article:
What song do you want played at your funeral?
* Footy club song 11.41%
* A hymn 3.36%
* My favourite pop song 20.81%
* Wind Beneath My Wings 0%
* Always Look on the Bright Side of Life 45.64%
* Anything by AC/DC 18.79%
September 10th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Who’d want to celebrate a life that consisted of endless cycles of self-flagellating guilt, overly-pious abstinence and occasional repentance for piffling ‘sins,’ anyway? And if they ever did manage to get a bit of fun in, then they were obviously breaking the rules anyway, so breaking one more for the funeral should be no problem.
September 10th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Out of touch. Out of ideas. And out of their minds.
It’s time for ratty and the entire rotten edifice that is the catholic church to pack its bags, apologise profusely and quietly sink into the inky blackness of obscurity for ever.
September 10th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
It’s amusing to see the pic of Father Maguire fondling an enormous red ball. Some things never change, do they?
September 10th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Miserable old twat.
September 10th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Catholic Church in insensitivity shock! Imagine that, the Catholics telling people what to do and not caring for their feelings, so long as they are obedient. Have you ever seen the like?
This is only going to cause rows and resentment, and a lot of angry former parishioners giving up after being insulted when trying to give their loved one a nice send off, along with a bunch of disgruntled priests angry at the hierarchy (who never have to deal with the public) putting them in this position. Nice job. Maybe an inside job, come to think of it…
September 10th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Miserable, sanctimonious religious twats imposing their warped world view, nothing new. You’d have thought this priest would be happy that people have gone to meet his imaginary friend.
September 10th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Surely the RCC making bad decisions that make them even further out of touch with the modern world is a good thing. Often bad decisions by the RCC cause a great deal of needless suffering, but not in this case. Anyone who opts for a Catholic funeral in spite of this and gets a crappy one has only themselves to blame.
For song choices, ‘Life’s a long song’ by Jethro Tull, ‘The Sage’ by ELP and ‘Old and Wise’ by the Alan Parsons Project.
September 10th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
It seems to me that funerals are increasingly often framed as ‘celebrations’. I can see the sense to this but also think it’s a way of holding the sadness of the occassion at bay. I’ve been to funerals where there wasn’t a single tear, everyone was restrained and frantically, manically jolly and getting pissed as quickly as possible with grins plastered on. When I die I want people to feel sad that they won’t be seeing me any more, remember the good times later but dont skip the grief – it’s a testament to love.
There’s room for both I guess, grief and celebration are linked through gratitude and loss, but can’t the Catholics leave it to those involved to orgainse themselves? It’s not like they’re children… poor little lambs eh? The deceased and nearest and dearest are more than capable of settling on something without any outside interference.
Religious types can’t miss a chance to tell people how they ought to be living and if people are highly emotional then they’re in there even more. A cynic might suggest they’re exploiting people in vulnerable moments. I am such a cynic.
Last funeral I attended some priest waffling on about ‘Dear Brother So-and-so’ in such a contrived manner. He’d never met the man in his life but no matter. How depressing to see the word cheapened while the dead man’s actual brother stood in front of me having a profoundly authentic experience. Worst panto I’ve ever had to sit through.
The funeral before that I heard a vicar announce that a reknowned atheist had ‘turned to god’ in their final days, as had always been plain would happen, etc. This was news. Spoke to some relatives and the person died a militant atheist and staunch secularist. Unfortunately the deceased had several born again xtians in the family and they seem to have cooked up a conversion, with or without the vicar.
Sickening. Weird how people so adept at kidding themselves and overlooking glaring inconsistencies between their own world view and experiences of reality are also better at knowing others people’s minds than the very person in question. Perhaps this is what comes of faith? Not needing to make sense of justify your position. when you’re right because you’re right you can explain away anything you like afetr the event.
I’m feeling very angry right now. : (
September 10th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Is vampire music still allowed? ‘Cause that’s what my lovely devout grandmother requested. We laughed, but we still loved it.
Bach Toccata and Fugue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FXoyr_FyFw
September 10th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Love JSB and the D minor T&F but did you know that BWV564 Toccata adagio and fugue in C is pretty awesome too?
September 10th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
I hate that catholic funerals are all about Jesus and not about the person who died. Save Jesus for the Sunday mass.
September 10th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
For many Australians, football is their real religion,so football songs(or songs celebrating the consumption of large amounts of alcohol) are more appropriate than brown-nosing some ME sky-god at the final rite of passage.
Bob Hughes,
I’ve always thought Pascall’s wager was total crap,we either believe or we can’t believe.
September 11th, 2010 at 7:12 am
This can only upset the catholic percentage of the 9% of Australians that attend a religous service once a month. That is, hardly anyone. You could pack ‘em into a phone booth.
September 11th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Re Pascal’s Wager, etc, etc: The Babble couldn’t possibly make it more plain that only those who believe in Ickle Lord Jeebus with ALL THEIR HEART, and live a godly life, eschewing all the “lusts of the flesh”, stand the remotest chance of ever reaching passing through dem Pearly Gates. So how come that absolutely ANYONE who is given a “christian” funeral – however dissolute and even wicked they may have been (see The Krays for instance) – automatically becomes a “brother” and dead cert for sainthood?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:52 pm
I personally can’t stand tacky, mawkish funerals myself. But as a Viking funeral organiser would have put it: “Whatever floats your boat”.