https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/shane-macgowans-widow-speaks-funeral-31675615
“The introduction of all these elements into that funeral mass frankly was a scandal and it shouldn’t have happened,” Father Paddy McCafferty of West Belfast had told Belfast Live. “If they wanted to have that sort of event they could have hired a hall somewhere and did all that.” The disgruntled priest argued that Shane was a “good man in his way” and was therefore “entitled to a funeral mass as every baptised Catholic is,” but that “there is no place” for songs like Fairytale of New York in the Eucharistic service.
“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,” he continued. Fairytale of New York, which skyrocketed The Pogues to global stardom after its 1998 release, was sung by Lisa O’Neill and Glen Hansard in a touching tribute to the late musician. Shane’s family were seen dancing to the festive tune, which was notably missing its controversial ‘F’ word lyric after it was accused of being homophobic.
Fr McCafferty took particular issue with the performance, adding, “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.” He also slammed it as “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
by ciaranjoneill