The Narcissistic Funeral, cont.
January 28, 2014
WANDA SHERRATT writes:
A controversy has arisen in our city over the decision of the Ottawa Archdiocese to limit eulogies at Catholic funerals.
The press release points out that eulogies are not a Catholic tradition, and indeed they seem to be borrowed from the sort of free-form procedure at some Protestant funerals, where a line of people take turns talking about the deceased. This sort of thing can easily get out of hand, but even where it doesn’t, it distracts from the sacramental aspect of a Catholic funeral, and turns it more into a sort of community sharing event.
The reaction in Ottawa has been very negative. Yesterday, our biggest paper, “The Citizen” published an op-ed piece on the subject which specifically refers to the “therapeutic” aspect of the eulogy, and makes no reference at all to God or eternity. The final paragraphs were the most telling, where the lady states that she hasn’t gone to mass for years (despite the innovation she approves of, which is eulogies at funerals).
Laura writes:
Readers may be interested in this previous post on what one writer calls “necronarcissim.”
— Comments —
John P. writes:
This is tangential to the main point but I thought you might find it interesting. My mother passed away a week ago on Tuesday. When my brother went to the funeral home to identify her body she had been “prepared” (embalmed, etc.) but to his horror he found they had put a smile on her face. Very creepy. People don’t smile when they’re asleep or when they’re dead. They agreed to give her a straight-faced expression after my complaint but the fact they would even think of doing such a thing is just one more detail in the way death is viewed today.
