With the percentage of people considered to be "practicing Catholics" at around 30%, the chances are pretty high that the priest, or celebrant, at the funeral Mass has never met the person in the casket who's soul he is about to spend the next 45 minutes praying for. Add in the fact that there are several places in the liturgy where that person's name needs to be inserted, one could see the intense pressure put on these priests to not screw it up. For example, as the priest looks down at his prayer book, he may come across a line such as, "Brothers and sisters, as we pray for the soul of name, we ask God ..." Pretty scary stuff.
For the most part, it is very rare that a major mistake is made. Sure, there is the occasional mispronunciation, but usually a priest can recover from that. A full-blown gaff, however, is like bad plastic surgery in that it can be both tragic and funny at the same time.
About ten years ago, I witnessed the perfect storm of a name gaff. There was a fill-in priest who happened to be a little crazy. He had this thick Irish accent, which by the way, I learned several years later was fake. He was notorious for being very theatrical and was known to mess up a name from time to time. This particular time was a doozy.
Unfortunately, the nickname of the deceased this day was Bobo, which, believe it or not, is not that uncommon of a name around these parts. It all started out quite normally. After the second Bobo, for some reason still not fully understood to this day, he started calling the guy "Bozo". I'm talking full-blown Shakespearean quality acting with a fake Irish accent thrown in for good measure. He must have said "Bozo" fifteen times. If there had been a rock in that chapel, I would have crawled under it.
Fortunately, Bobo's family was not that offended. I'm sure they still talk about it and laugh every Christmas when they sit around the dinner table.
Like the priest in the chapel on that hot sunny morning, I didn't know Bobo personally, but I can guarantee you, I'll never forget him.
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