I LOVE how the Catholic Church SPRINGS into action to enforce its own damn rules. (/sarcasm)
Protestants — and Catholics who’ve seen too many movies featuring Protestant funerals — probably don’t know that Catholic funerals are NOT supposed to include a eulogy.
Or a scratchy tape of Frank Sinatra/Paul Anka/Sid Vicious singing “My Way,” either.
Unlike Protestants, we are not supposed to presume that any dead person in now safely in heaven. No one, not even the Pope.
We cannot read hearts, minds and souls. Even if the deceased received the “last rites”/ made a perfect Act of Contrition/whatever, the chances are they are in purgatory, not heaven.
So giving a eulogy in which you more or less “canonize” an individual and use phrases like “So and so is looking down on us” etc. is presumptive.
No Mass, especially a funeral mass, is supposed to be an entertainment event.
It isn’t about you, or even the deceased. It is about God.
