Sports anthems and popular songs such as Frank Sinatra's My Way have been banned from funerals at Australian churches by Melbourne's archbishop.

The edict follows a study that found the signature song for Australian Rules Football team Collingwood was one of the top requests at Melbourne funerals, along with My Way and the Bette Midler version of The Wind Beneath My Wings.

Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said sports songs were not appropriate for a service which emphasises the solemn nature of death and is not designed as a celebration of life.

"Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs, football club songs," Hart writes in the new guidelines.