THE National Liturgical Commission (NLC) is moving to reclaim Church funeral services from ‘irreverent’ secular practices.
NLC executive officer Fr Peter Williams said the commission was reviewing Church guidelines for funeral services following complaints from parish priests and funeral directors about practices they believed were inappropriate.
Fr Williams cited examples such as the telling of blue jokes, a beer stubby being opened at the lectern, very long eulogies and the use of secular music.
The commission is concerned funeral services have become over-personalised at the expense of a Christian focus, and it aims to restore the balance with draft guidelines to be presented to the Australian Catholic bishops.
‘For some time the National Liturgical Commission has been concerned about reports we had been getting about the conduct of Christian burials, and that overdue emphasis was being given to the funeral as a celebration of the life of the person that died,’ Fr Williams said.
He said there was a need to include personal elements into funerals, but the NLC is aiming for a balance so the pastoral need of referring to the deceased can be appropriately incorporated into the Christian service.
Brisbane archdiocese’s Liturgical Commission education officer, Elizabeth Harrington, in an ABC Radio interview on January 20, said the Church was not trying to depersonalise funerals.
‘But some of the instances like cracking open a stubby at the altar and telling blue jokes, I think most reasonable people would realise are a bit over the top,’ Mrs Harrington said.
‘And I think, in trying to be pastoral and meeting people in their moment of grief, the Church has allowed itself in some cases to be compromised.’
