With the great heritage of beauty from Scripture and Tradition in mind, Pope Francis turned his attention to the evangelical power of beauty in his Apostolic Exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel.” There he writes: “Every form of catechesis would do well to attend to the ‘way of beauty’ or the ‘via pulchritudinis.’”
With widespread religious disaffiliation not only among Catholics, but Christians in general, it’s safe to say that today most people’s idea of what a funeral should be has been formed more by what they’ve seen in movies than from a religious context. But funerals are religious services, and because they often draw together people who do not otherwise participate in the life of the Church, they can be important moments of evangelization.