"The new guidelines say a Catholic funeral should never be 'a celebration of the life'.

"The main focus of a funeral should be 'commending the deceased person to God'."

Gee, where have we heard something like that before?

Not everyone agrees with the archbishop.

"Fr Maguire said he preferred to think of funerals as 'family affairs attended by clergy, not a clergymen's affair attended by family'."

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/catholic-church-bans-footy-theme-songs-at-funerals/story-e6frf7kx-1225916825470

I don't understand, if you celebrate the good things of a persons life doesn't that commend them to God? If this guy was BKP though he would say the entire focus of the funeral should be on Christ and the resurrection with nothing about the deceased.

Im a Melbourne local, this was big news for a couple of days here after it was announced. If you want to see a clergy man who stands for what he believes do a search on Fr Bob Maguire. If he was mormon they would have exed him by now. he is my local clergy not that im religious anymore, but i have had a bit to do with him. He has married and burried everyone from famous to infamous in melbourne. he is a really cool guy

The Catholic funeral is a mass and it is set out in the prayer book. If you choose to be buried in a Catholic ritual, that is what you get.They are not going to turn the whole thing over to the family and let them do whatever. If t a Catholic wants, they can hold a wake before or hold the service somewhere else. There is room for a euology, choice of scripture, readings etc, but there will be a mass. If you don't want that, you shouldn't have a Catholic funeral. It is a liturgical church. If you watched Kennedy's funeral a year ago, there were plenty of personal touches.His kids talked about him as a father and the readings reflected Kennedy's views.Unlike Mormons, they do not use the funeral to try to convert others.