Your late friend might well have been a dipsomaniacal lothario about whom dozens of stories could be told - just don't tell them at his funeral.
That's the latest message from the most senior figure in Australia's Catholic church.
Cardinal George Pell has produced a new set of guidelines for eulogies given by relatives or friends at Catholic funerals, decreeing that they should last no longer than five minutes and avoid certain subjects.
According to the advice, obtained today by Reuters:
On not a few occasions, inappropriate remarks glossing over the deceased's proclivities (drinking prowess, romantic conquests etc) or about the church (attacking its moral teachings) have been made at funeral masses.
The cardinal said this should be stopped, and tributes should be brief and focus on the dead person's "human qualities and faith".
Is he right? Should bawdy recollections be saved for, say, a non-denominational wake?
And what about the words of a cardinal who, in recent newspaper columns, has dismissed those warning about global warming as "scaremongers" and described a nuclear reactor in Sydney as having "a health contribution to society comparable to that of one of our great capital city hospitals"?
