No soul music

Who would have thought an atheist like me would be defending the Catholic Church!

There’s been a bit of discussion this week about the decision by the Catholic Church in Melbourne to ban non-religious songs like football anthems and “popular” music from funerals.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart told ABC that allowing the funeral to become a secular celebration of that individual’s life should be avoided. This is some of what the guidelines state:

"Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs or football club songs."

"The wishes of the deceased, family and friends should be taken into account, with pastoral kindness and consideration. But in planning the liturgy the celebrant should moderate any tendency to turn the funeral into a secular celebration of the life of the deceased."

While I proudly and loudly belt out the Collingwood Football Club song after victories (and defeats!) I can completely understand why the Church is taking what could be seen as a hard line on this. Footy songs do not belong at a Catholic funeral.

The Catholic Funeral in all its glory is not the “celebration of that person’s life” in the secular sense. It’s actually a Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of the person who’s died. Basically it means a mass to bring peace and tranquillity to that soul.

How do I know? I was raised a Catholic in a family of strong Catholics, went to Catholic schools and as a result attended countless Catholic masses, including plenty of Catholic funerals.

What the Church in Melbourne is saying is this – let me paraphrase for you:

“Look – you’re a Catholic, right? OK. Someone in your Catholic family has died and you want a Catholic funeral? OK. Cool. Here’s the deal though. You’re Catholic so you buy into all that being Catholic means, so if you want a Catholic funeral that means we do it by The Book...and by that I really do mean The Book. OK? Good.”

As far as I can see, if you’re Catholic and you DON’T want to have it done the Catholic way, then DON’T. Have a different kind of funeral. The Catholic Church is quite within its rights to say “you want to be a member of this club, well here are the club rules.”

The Archbishop is right when he says the mass is not a secular celebration of that person’s life. The mass is a very serious and ceremonial occasion steeped in about two thousand years of tradition and is more to do with the intrinsic areas of Catholic faith than the individual in the coffin surrounded by the Altar Boys swinging the incense.

Other faiths have different ideas but the Catholic faith lays its rules out very clearly. Even if you don’t agree with them you should at least respect them if you want to be in that club. You can’t really be “a bit” Catholic.

For Catholics who do want to celebrate the life of their dead friend or relative the right place for that is after the sombre funeral, down at the local Irish Pub where there’ll be plenty of singing and celebration in the equally ancient tradition of the wake!