No formal services wll take place.

I cannot understand why any Catholic would not want a funeral liturgy. Even if they had the Funeral Rite outside Mass it would be better than nothing.

However, I do sometimes wonder if the choice is actually that of the deceased. Obviously, when we are dead we are at the mercies of our families about the form of service we will have. I do not know about other countries but I believe here in England you can do nothing binding during your lifetime that compels your family to give you the funeral of your choice. It now seems to be standard practice to state those wishes in your will but I understand they are not enforceable.

I do agree with the article that at many funerals it does seem like the deceased is being canonised. Indeed, I believe the kind of eulogies given telling how wonderful the deceased was, are forbidden in Catholic funerals. However, this rule seems to be more honoured in the breach than in the observance.

When I learned that my cousin had died, it was noted that there would be no funeral and no services. She was to be cremated and the ashes scattered in the Gulf of Mexico. But I did have a Mass offered for her at a nearby abbey. One can always have a Mass offered.

You sound like my husband the Calvinist who didn't think it was necessary to pray because he figured God was going to take care of everything anyway and had made certain decisions already without human input.  (Yes, I did tell him that was completely ridiculous.) 

The USCCB has explained on their page the purpose of Catholic funeral rites:

"At the death of a Christian, whose life of faith was begun inthe waters of Baptism and strengthened at the Eucharistic table, the Church intercedes on behalf of the deceased because of its confident belief that death is not the end, nor does it break the bonds forged in life. The Church also ministers to the sorrowing and consoles them in the funeral rites with the comforting Word of God and the Sacrament of the Eucharist."

www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/bereavement-and-funerals/overview-of-catholic-funeral-rites

By your reasoning we shouldn't bother praying for the dead at all. Or praying for anything else. That's contrary to Church teaching as well as to the USCCB statement.  Assuming you are Catholic, and not a Calvinist like my late husband (Or even if you are), you may want to rethink.

Your post also goes against the Church teaching that God is outside of time and could easily apply a Mass or prayers that we say in earthly time after a person's death, to help the same person during their life on Earth and help them to be saved in the first place.  And even if the Mass or prayers somehow could not help the intended person, God would use it for another good purpose.  No prayer is ever wasted.  The Mass and prayers are also just as much for the living who mourn as for the deceased person. 

Having said all that, why in heaven's name would you think it is "presumptuous" to talk to God?
Do you think he doesn't want to hear from us? He loves us. He likes it when we talk to him. It doesn't mean we always get our way, but he's not upset if we ask, and in fact there is a long tradition of people petitioning God with varying degrees of success, shown in Scripture all the way back to the patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Don't you think it's "presumptuous" for you to just dismiss that?
And if you love God then why wouldn't you want to talk to him, and have Mass said even if it was just to honor him?

I did not say it was presumptuous to talk to God. I said it was presumptuous to think we can change His mind.

I don't want to hijack this thread and get off on a tangent but a lot of this has to do with my ongoing love/hate relationship with God. This is not the appropriate venue to tell you my life story nor do I have the time to do so. But I believe that despite what we have been brainwashed to believe, I do not see God as a universal force for good and He does not really love everyone. He has his favorites. Many are called; few are chosen. Sometimes I think that I am simply not one of the chosen.

We cannot presume to know what God is thinking. People believe what they want to believe about God because it makes them feel comfortable.  We believe but we don't really know everything to be a fact. 

When someone can convinced me to my satisfaction that God really does care then maybe I'll change my mind. So far, that has not happened.

My dear mother struggles with exactly the same thing, as did my father before he died.  He lost his speech in the final months of his illness, couldn't walk, lay on the couch with his hands stretched upwards, we asked him if he was praying to die, and he said yes.  I had taught him about the Apostolic Pardon before his death, and I want to think he was cooperating with this.  Towards the end, he hardly knew he was in the world.  The end came peacefully and gently one afternoon.

Yeah, that reminds me of the general advice we got as kids that no-one can truly bring anyone to the Church but God ultimately.