re: Ever see an officiant mess up a memorial service?

quote:

---

Why not have someone close or that at least knows them do it?

---

I don’t know whether it is a Catholic rule or a diocese rule, but I saw it on their website that no one can do a catholic service but a priest. In fact, I had a relative die recently and his granddaughter asked to speak, but the priest wouldn’t let her until the service was basically ending and he called her up to say a few words.

They all do now,

quote:

---

I had a relative die recently and his granddaughter asked to speak, but the priest wouldn’t let her until the service was basically ending and he called her up to say a few words.

---

Went to a Catholic one recently where the priest invited folks to speak in the middle of the service. Maybe it’s just a priest call.

A good friend who had been married five times died a few years ago. He was trying to marry for the sixth but the diocese insisted one of his previous marriages be annulled first. They never turned him down, but stretched out the process until his heart gave out. At his funeral, the priest called him a rascal, which was pretty accurate, but…really?

Not that uncommon...

It can be really nice, especially if it's a "natural causes" type of deal, and the deceased was a Christian.

The priest that performed my dad’s service didn’t mess anything up, but he spoke for way too long.

If he had really known my dad for years, then we would’ve understood, but he didn’t, so it just kinda left us looking at each other after a while wondering when he was going to turn the mic over.

quote:

---

Went to a Catholic one recently where the priest invited folks to speak in the middle of the service. Maybe it’s just a priest call.

---

Unfortunately, there is a widening gap between ‘traditional’ Catholic churches, “liberal” Catholic churches, and those that are somewhere in the middle.

A guy here in my town had his dad die a few years ago. He'd been estranged from his dad and dad's family for quite a while, but dad made amends after his cancer diagnosis . Anyway, the son and his family are Baptist. Dad had always been Catholic, but when he moved to be near son during hospice he had associated with the Baptist church.

Funeral comes around and son does all the arrangements, including having the Baptist minister do the service. Dad's siblings - devout Catholics - show up and bring the local priest, demanding that he be allowed to say a few words. Son and Baptist pastor say sure, but this was spring on them at the last minute, so no one knows what to expect.

Priest launches into a discussion of purgatory - I assume because dad hadn't been to confession in a long time. In the middle of it he asks the audience, "who among you can say confidently that if you died today all of your sins would be completely washed and you would walk directly into heaven?"

The Baptist preacher, sitting behind the pulpit, along with about the entire crowd on the left side of the funeral home (not Catholic), raises their hand to say, "yes, we'd be covered."

The priest went blank, like someone had dropped trou and taken a shite in the center aisle, and stammered for a few minutes, not knowing where to go from there. I thought it was funny as hell.

At my dad's funeral, the minister kept referring to my dad by my brother's name. I told the minister after the service, but he continued to make the same mistake at the burial.