I am not familiar with the funeral rites used in Ireland, but the Order of Christian Funerals approved for England and Wales surely has some of the answers to Fr Bernard Cotter’s questions (“Another kind of send-off”, Parish Practice, 9 November). Our practice is certainly not “to insist that the funeral Mass is the only suitable liturgy to mark the passing of a Catholic”. The celebration of a funeral liturgy outside Mass, in church and/or at cemeteries and crematoria is frequent and often welcomed by families who would feel it inappropriate to celebrate the funeral within Mass. Whilst we might share with Ireland occasions when eulogies have got out of hand, I would strongly argue for the retention, at all funerals, of the invitation that “a member or f