The second reading, also from the Book of Revelation, was followed by a live performance of “Rainy Night in Soho,” another of MacGowan’s love songs.
A third reading, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, was done by Bono, the lead singer of U2, by recording.
The prayers of the faithful were followed by a performance of “I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day,” a Scottish music hall song that MacGowan sang backup on for the Pogues’ second album.
After communion, two singers and a band performed “Fairy Tale of New York,” a Christmastime song that at one point depicts a heated argument between two lovers that includes vulgar words for a condom, a homosexual man, and a woman’s rear end, along with the word “slut” and a slang word for heroin.
The raucous version of the song got pewsitters clapping and some dancing in the aisles.
Father McCafferty told CNA “Fairytale of New York” was not appropriate for the setting.
“It’s not a bad song. But it’s not a song to be sung after Holy Communion during the Mass,” McCafferty said. “It’s a mockery. I don’t think everyone present meant to be mocking. But that’s how it came across. And it needs to stop.”
Father McCafferty said MacGowan deserved better.
“The man was entitled to a requiem Mass. He was a practicing Catholic. He was a child of God. But that other stuff they brought into the Mass – that should have been at a secular venue, either later or at some other time. Don’t do it in the house of God,” Father McCafferty said.
MacGowan’s funeral Mass has drawn mostly praise from online commenters who watched a livestream version of it.
McCaffery, 60, a native of Belfast, told CNA he got involved in the story earlier this week when he retweeted and commented on a published criticism of MacGowan’s funeral by John McGuirk, the editor of Gript, a conservative news web site in Ireland, who called the gathering a “funeral concert.”
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BelfastLive, an online news site in Northern Ireland, got in touch with the priest and interviewed him, publishing a story on Thursday, Dec. 13 that quoted McCafferty calling MacGowan’s funeral Mass “a scandal.”
In the aftermath, Father McCafferty said he has gotten a supportive telephone call from one priest and some private messages from laypeople supporting what he said.
“I’m not aware of another priest who has publicly said anything. It’s typical,” Father McCafferty said.
Much of the reaction to Father McCafferty’s comments has been negative.
“I know I’m going to get flack. I know I’m going to get ridiculed. And I have,” Father McCafferty said. “That’s a price I’m more than willing to pay.”
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