Archbishop Bans Pop Music At Funerals 38
pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has announced a ban on the playing of pop music at funerals, which, he said, are not to be described as 'a celebration of the life of' the deceased. According to new guidelines published on Archbishop Denis Hart's Web site: '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.' According to a cemetery contacted by Melbourne's Herald Sun, a list of more unusual songs played at Australian funerals includes: 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' by Monty Python, 'Another One Bites the Dust' by Queen, 'Highway to Hell,' by AC/DC and 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead' from The Wizard of Oz."
What happened to News for Nerds? (Score:4, Insightful)
It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:3, Insightful)
Indeed. A lot of funerals I've been to seem to treat it entirely as a chance to prattle on about God and Jesus to a captive audience, with an "insert name here" script.
The last funeral I went to was for my Gran, and it was a secular funeral. It was [i]all about[/i] a celebration of her life, and was much more personal and caring than any religious funeral has ever been.
In conclusion, fuck that Archbishop.
Re:Hypocrisy (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, because "America, The Beautiful" is sung at OH SO MANY Australian funerals.
Re:It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep your fucking to yourself, please.
The Archbishop didn't tell you or anyone else what to do in secular funerals, so you have no business complaining if you're not a practicing Catholic.
Really, I think people just don't get the picture about how Catholic funerals are designed. There's the wake and there's the funeral service.
The wake has plenty of room for nostalgia, sentiment, story-telling, and goofy songs, if you want.
The funeral service in church is (gasp!) a religious service. It's not a party. It's not for telling stories how Uncle Bob could drink us all under the table. It's about God and about praying for the deceased. We Catholics believe in doing that. If you have a problem with that, you don't have to attend it.
Be happy!
Re:It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:1, Insightful)
I'll fuck wherever I want, thank you.
Re:It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:1, Insightful)
I think people get the reason it's not allowed, they disagree with it. You seem incredulous that people want to do things differently than you.
Re:It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It *is* a celebration, idiiot (Score:1, Insightful)
Lots and lots of people have Catholic family members and other loved ones without being Catholic themselves.