Funeral Rites of the Catholic Church

Nothing can take away the pain we feel when confronting death, but immense comfort can be drawn from the Catholic funeral liturgy and its accompanying traditions.  Catholic funeral rites incorporate Scripture, ritual, and symbol to help express beliefs about life, death, and the  afterlife, and how they are entwined.
In the Catholic funeral tradition we not only comfort the bereaved, but we pray as well for the deceased.  The Catholic Church teaches, "Though separated from the living, the dead are still at one with the community of believers on earth and benefit from their prayers and intercessions".