A Bishop has banned families from reading out poems at loved ones funerals, saying it is "not a time for others to talk about the deceased".

The Bishop of Motherwell Joseph Toal issued a directive to priests to refuse requests from relatives who want to pay tribute to their loved ones during the funeral Mass.

Friends or relatives have in the past contributed to services with personalised poems, readings and stories about the deceased.

However the senior Catholic bishop has now banned family members from giving eulogies at all funeral services in his dioceses after saying that he did not feel the church was the appropriate location for eulogies and suggested they may be more suitable at the funeral reception afterwards.

He stressed that the only person to speak at the service should be a priest or deacon and insisted it was "not a time for anyone else to be getting up to talk about the deceased, whoever they may be."

The Diocese of Motherwell is one of the largest in Scotland with 66 parishes in Lanarkshire and parts of Glasgow, serving more than 160,000 Catholics.

In a letter issued to all priests and deacons in the diocese, Bishop Toal said: "Most questions seem to arise around requests made for eulogies at the funeral liturgies.