He slammed it as ‘an abuse of what mass is and what the Catholic funeral liturgy is all about’.
A priest has slammed Irish music legend Shane MacGowan’s funeral mass that took place last Friday in Nenagh in Tipperary as “completely inappropriate” and “a scandal”.
Several artist friends of MacGowan’s – including Aidan Gillen, Bob Geldof, Glen Hansard, Imelda May, Johnny Depp, Lisa O’Neill and Nick Cave attended the three-hour-long ceremony, which was streamed live and featured a number of musical performances of the singer-songwriter’s songs including ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ and ‘Fairytale of New York’.
However, while many saw the event as a joyous celebration of MacGowan’s life, Fr Paddy McCafferty – parish priest of the Corpus Christi parish in West Belfast – took strong issue with the mass.
Shane MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke speaking at his funeral
Speaking to Belfast Live, he labelled it “an abuse of what mass is and what the Catholic funeral liturgy is all about”.
Regarding the music and several funeral attendees being seen dancing during the performances, Fr McCafferty told the outlet:
“The introduction of all these elements into that funeral mass frankly was a scandal and it shouldn’t have happened. If they wanted to have that sort of event they could have hired a hall somewhere and did all that.
“[Shane MacGowan] was a good man in his own way and he was entitled to a funeral mass as every baptised Catholic is but all of that stuff should have been kept out of the mass, there is no place for that in the mass at all.
“It was an abuse of the liturgy and it showed a completely askew understanding of what we actually are doing when we celebrate a funeral mass.”
The priest was particularly displeased with the rendition of ‘Fairytale of New York’ during the funeral, which was sung by Glen Hansard and Lisa O’Neill.
In Fr McCafferty’s view, the singing of the Christmas classic after Holy Communion was “totally out of place”.
He also said “the words that are used in that song and in the church showed no understanding of the sacredness of what the place is and the holiness of the mass,” before calling it “completely inappropriate to say the least, to the point of scandal”.
“Something needs to be done about these so-called celebrity funerals in a Catholic church. If people don’t want that then go somewhere else. I watched maybe a couple of minutes and thought my goodness, I couldn’t watch any more of that,” Fr McCafferty added.
“We’re not there to entertain, we’re there to celebrate the worship of God and lead people in the worship of God. I wouldn’t allow that in my church.”
Read more:
- Shane MacGowan’s funeral: Pogues singer ‘urged’ Johnny Depp to forgive Amber Heard
- Dave Fanning’s comments during Shane MacGowan tribute on BBC spark controversy
- Nick Cave performs beautiful rendition of Pogues classic at Shane MacGowan’s funeral
- Thousands line streets in Dublin for Shane MacGowan’s funeral
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