The funeral traditions of Filipino Catholics that involve the coming together of relatives and friends to pay last respect to the deceased and console the grieving family is one situation that is regulated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing the interpretive phenomenology, this case study aims to investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic health protocols imposed by the government on the traditional funeral practices of Filipino Catholics in an urban context. Thematic analysis was used to analyze 30 in-depth interviews with persons who are familiar with the funeral traditions of Catholics, and the immediate family members and relatives of persons who died and were buried or cremated in 2020. We generated eleven themes: (1) entitlement to the ministries of the church, (2) social cohesion in times of someone’s death, (3) final disposition of dead bodies, (4) regulation of the Church’s ministries, (5) limited participation in funeral traditions, (6) immediate disposition of dead bodies, (7) spatio- temporal freedom, (8) the warmth of physical presence (9) constricted human connectedness, (10) familial solidarity, and (11) deprived to physically convey love and respect for the deceased. We conclude that as funeral traditions are valued, observance of such are partially altered in consideration of the health protocols amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Catholics’ adaptive capacity allows them to still observe the funeral traditions in a limited sense without totally neglecting the observance of health protocols through the aid of communication technologies and the internet. Keywords: death and dying, funeral traditions, health protocols, COVID-19