Mother Angelica dies on Easter Sunday

The following comes from the Catholic Sentinel: 

Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation, 92, the Poor Clare nun who founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), passed away on March 27 after a lengthy illness. She had suffered a stroke several months ago.

“Mother has always and will always personify EWTN, the network that God asked her to found,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Warsaw. “Her accomplishments and legacies in evangelization throughout the world are nothing short of miraculous and can only be attributed to divine Providence and her unwavering faithfulness to Our Lord.”

Members of her religious order, the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Hanceville, have been requesting — and thanking the world — for prayers for Mother Angelica.

"The many cards and promises of prayer she received throughout this past Christmas season were a great consolation and support," the posting said. "Mother's condition remains delicate and she receives devoted care day and night by her sisters and nurses."

"In God's providence, she was able to receive the special jubilee grace" of passing through the Door of Mercy shortly after its opening for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, it said. "Although she is most often sleeping, from time to time mother will give a radiant smile. There is no doubt that her heart must be 'on things above.'"

Last November, a spokesman for the Poor Clares told Catholic News Service, that Mother Angelica was doing as well as could be expected for someone her age who remains partially paralyzed.

"From what I'm told, it's not that she's completely unable to eat. It's assisting her to get the nutrients she needs," said Luke Johnasen, director of pilgrimages at the monastery. He confirmed to CNS that she had been fitted with a feeding tube.

"She's had some up and downs the last few months," he said. "She's a fighter."

In a website posting, the Poor Clares said that toward the close of 2015, the entire community of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, based in Birmingham, came together to celebrate a special Mass for Mother Angelica. It was "another gift of God's mercy. Mother herself is regularly fortified by the sacraments," the order said.

On Feb. 12, Pope Francis sent his greetings Mother Angelica from aboard the papal plane to Cuba for his historic meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.

"To Mother Angelica with my blessing and I ask you to pray for me; I need it," the pope said. "God bless you, Mother Angelica."

EWTN released the pope's message for Mother Angelica later that day.

A native of Canton, Ohio, Mother Angelica launched EWTN Aug. 15, 1981. The initiative was met with doubt from television executives who felt there was little demand for Catholic programming. The networks' website reports that it transmits programs 24 hours a day to more than 230 million homes in 144 countries via cable and other technologies. It broadcasts in in English and several other languages.

Twenty employees are now nearly 400. EWTN broadcasts terrestrial and shortwave radio around the world, operates a religious goods catalog and publishes the National Catholic Register and the Catholic News Agency.

“Mother Angelica succeeded at a task the nation’s bishops themselves couldn’t achieve,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia told the Catholic News Agency. 

Archbishop Chaput has served on EWTN’s board of governors since 1995. “She founded and grew a network that appealed to everyday Catholics, understood their needs and fed their spirits. She had a lot of help, obviously, but that was part of her genius.”

Justice Antonin Scalia, RIP

We need to pray for the repose of the soul of this great public servant, Catholic, Supreme Court Justice and fool for Christ, Antonin Scalia.  Here is a great quote from the Justice from a talk to the Knights of Columbus:

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools ... and he has not been disappointed,” Scalia said. 

“If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity,” he added. “Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

Father Benedict Groeschel: ‘A Heart for the Poor’

The following comes from the NCR:

“St. Vincent de Paul said: If you love the poor, your life will be filled with sunlight, and you will not be frightened at the hour of death,” Father Benedict Joseph Groeschel, a founder of the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, once wrote. “I wish to witness that this is true.”

Those words encapsulated the remarkable priestly ministry of Father Groeschel. He lived and worked in a small converted garage, even as he maintained a tireless pace as a popular preacher, counselor and author who expressed himself with the accent and edgy humor of a New Jersey native.

Now, following his death at the age of 81 on Oct. 3, the vigil of the feast of his patron, St. Francis, those same words sustain his community and the many souls he touched in his rich and fruitful life.

“He had a heart for the poor. While he was brilliant, wrote 46 books and was on television, his love for the poor kept him rooted,” Father Glenn Sudano, a co-founder of the Franciscan Friars, told the Register, expressing both sadness at his friend’s death and “gratitude for his life.”

“If there is anything he would want to go with him to heaven, it is that he served Jesus in the poor.”

Father Groeschel died after an extended illness. He had worked primarily in the New York area, serving as the first superior of the Friars of the Renewal after their founding in 1987, and also as the long-time director of the Office for Spiritual Development of the Archdiocese of New York, among other duties. 

He also was the author of many popular books, including Spiritual Passages: The Psychology of Spiritual Development and Arise From Darkness: What to Do When Life Doesn't Make Sense.

Iconic Presence on EWTN

But he drew greatest national and international attention through his work with the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), hosting a live weekly show beginning in the 1980s, and often appearing on the network.

Michael Warsaw, the chairman and chief executive officer of ETWN, expressed sadness at the news of Father Groeschel’s death, remarking on the decisive role he played as a presence on the network, and as a supporter, during the rocky early days of EWTN. 

“Like Mother Angelica herself, Father Benedict was an iconic presence on EWTN. His gray beard and Franciscan habit were known to network viewers around the world and he had a profound impact on the lives of countless individuals who knew him only through his television and radio presence,” said Warsaw, who is also the Register’s publisher.

“In many of the most difficult days in the history of EWTN, Father Benedict was a strong and vocal supporter of Mother Angelica.”

Doug Keck, EWTN’s president and chief operating officer, worked with Father Groeschel for many years and attested to the priest’s influence. “He contributed the deep wisdom of Catholic spirituality and the ability, similar to Mother Angelica, to reach people where they were hurting,” Keck told the Register.

“Our audience loved him: He had the likability factor. But he was a man on a mission: He stood up for the truth of the faith when others didn’t, but he taught the truth in love.”

EWTN’s chaplain, Father Joseph Mary Wolfe of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word, who first met Father Groeschel more than 25 years ago, said the priest served as a model for his own vocation and was “a father to our community at the beginning of our community’s life.”

“When he began visiting EWTN in the 1980s, I was usually his chauffeur, and it was a workout to keep up with him, even in his 70s,” Father Wolfe told the Register.

“He would do his series and then visit or counsel people. He didn’t sleep much; he spent himself for others. He was and remains a model for me of sacrificial generosity.”

Drawn to the Priestly Life

Born in Jersey City, N.J., in 1933, the future Franciscan priest attended Catholic elementary and high school, before he entered the province of St. Joseph of the Capuchin Order in Huntington, Ind., in 1951. He was ordained in 1959.

In one of his many humorous stories told in books and public forums, he recalled the first time he was drawn to the priestly life and to service of the poor.

As a young child, he said he saw a nun bringing food every day to a poor widow. He followed the nun, and looked in the window to see a woman, who looked like a witch in a fairy tale. Frightened, he ran away to church, but he realized that he wanted to do the same. 

After ordination, Father Groeschel’s first priestly assignment was to serve as the interim Catholic chaplain at Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. His service to troubled children placed in the residential program led him to pursue graduate studies in psychology. But he sought to combine his chosen discipline with a distinctively Christian compassion for those in need.

In 1967, he opened St. Francis House in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, as a new residential program designed to help adolescent boys prepare for a successful adult life. He was inspired to do so when two boys from the Children’s Village had no place to live. After struggling to find a suitable location, he found the right building on his birthday. 

Joseph Campo, the longtime director of St. Francis, recalled the priest’s great love for the boys in the program, and said that he “naturally saw the good in people” and they responded to that. 

In 1970, he received his doctorate in psychology at Columbia University, and would teach pastoral psychology for almost 40 years at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. 

Trinity Retreat House

In 1973, Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York appointed him the founding director of Trinity Retreat house in Larchmont, N.Y. At the facility on the shores of Long Island Sound, he provided a respite for priests and religious.

There, Father Groeschel counseled priests thinking about leaving their vocation, and others struggling with addiction or depression. 

Trinity Retreat became a hub for a range of Catholic leaders and groups who sought the priest’s counsel.

Sister of Life Mother Agnes Mary Donovan remembers visiting Trinity at the invitation of Father Groeschel, two months after the Sisters of Life was founded in 1991. 

“He took us on a hike on the shore of Long Island Sound. When we got to the end of the trail, he pulled me over, and said, ‘Sister, this will be a difficult undertaking, but I will be there for you,’” Mother Agnes told the Register.

“It turned out that whether it was 10pm or 4am, I could call Father to find help for a sister in distress or a troubling situation — apostolically or for the community. He always answered the phone and followed up.”

Looking back, the superior general of the Sisters of Life said the priest played a decisive role in the survival and success of her order, which has thrived over the past two decades, drawing many vocations to advance its apostolate.

“It was in no small part thanks to his wisdom that we are still here,” she said. “The friars are very close to us. We are often serving the same people, and they will provide for sacramental needs of women we are serving, or those who come on our retreats. They are a vital part of our ministry.”

Inspiration in a Time of Confusion

In 1974, Cardinal Cooke asked him to direct the Office of Spiritual Development for the archdiocese, and he attended to a range of education forums, including weekly afternoons of recollection, which were designed to revive and inspire the faith of Catholics in a time of confusion and uncertainty.

During the turbulent years in the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council, Father Groeschel was troubled by some of the policies and practices of his Capuchin province, and disturbed by what he viewed as a piecemeal approach to the faith that lacked a deeper prophetic witness.

The example of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta inspired his spiritual path, stirring a deep desire to be closer to the poor. And as he saw young women flock to her order, he concluded that young Catholics were yearning to embrace a life of distinctive sacrificial witness to Christ’s love for the poor.

“An invitation to conduct a retreat for the Missionaries of Charity in India was the beginning of Father Groeschel’s long relationship with that community and his deep friendship with its founder,” noted the official obituary of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. 

In March 1987, he met with seven other Capuchin Franciscan friars and with their agreement asked Cardinal John O’Connor for permission to establish the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and the New York archbishop approved that request. Later, he was elected the order’s first community servant.

Father Sudano was part of the small group of Capuchins who began the renewal in spring of 1987, and he still can recall the first time he heard Father Groeschel preach in the 1970s.

“Storms were brewing, and the barque of Peter was taking a lot of water. He would speak candidly about the need for renewal in the Church and for personal renewal, but with a tremendous humility, focus and verve,” recalled Father Sudano. “It was the Catholic faith in its fullness, there was nothing provincial or marginal in his approach.”

A Radical Witness

Father Andrew Apostoli, another of the co-founders, recalled that Father Groeschel “had courage and deep concern for the Franciscan way of life.”

In the mid-1980s, Father Apostoli said, Father Groeschel saw religious communities “weakening because they had lost their way in the spiritual journey by adapting many secular ways and values.” He knew that “when we began the community he would be criticized, but he still went forward with what he truly believed God was calling him to.”

Father Sudano said the eight Capuchins who ultimately founded the Friars of the Renewal had not intended to leave the Capuchins. 

“Our desire was to be a reform group within the order. After three years of fraternal dialogue, it became evident that the province didn’t know what to do with us.”

As the group considered their next step, Father Groeschel pointed to “a small group of third order Franciscans living in the South Bronx in a radical way,” recalled Father Sudano. “He told me, ‘We should do something like that.’”

Today, there are 115 brothers and priests in the Friars of the Renewal, and 31 sisters of the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal.

“We have 15 friaries. There are two houses in England, two in Ireland, two in Central America and seven in the U.S., in New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas,” said Father Sudano.

The friars are quite active in the New York area, especially the South Bronx where they work extensively with the poor in various ways, running two homeless shelters for men, one for men actively working for healing and recovery; a food pantry; a neighborhood youth outreach started by Father Groeschel to help youth learn their Catholic faith; a free medical clinic; weekly lunch in Harlem; and in Yonkers an outreach to the Latino community.

The friars also conduct prayer vigils at abortion businesses and sponsor evenings of music, prayer and fellowship for young adults.

Sister Lucille Cutrone, who serves as superior of the Community of the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, told the Register that her community could not have been formed “without the gifts of Father Benedict’s vision. His heart was very much like St. Francis: he loved God, he loved the Church, he loved religious life and he loved the poor.”

Said Sister Lucille, “I’ll never forget one of our first Christmas celebrations at our shelter in the South Bronx. We were very few then, just a few friars and sisters and the homeless men. Father Benedict was singing Christmas carols with them and joyfully handing out the most beautiful gifts to the men who were so deeply moved.

“They didn’t expect to receive anything and there was Father Benedict, making them feel like they were the most important people in the world. And they were.”

Near-Fatal Car Accident

On Jan. 11, 2004, Father Groeschel was hit by a car, in a near-fatal accident that shattered his left arm and put him in a coma for days. The accident left him in a permanently weakened condition, but after an extended recovery, he returned to his work.

Campo from St. Francis House remembers visiting his friend in the hospital after the accident.

“He couldn’t speak much, but I was holding his hand and talking to him. He could see I was crying. 

“When it was time to leave, I looked at him. He turned and looked at me and managed to say, ‘Joe, coraggio, — courage in English,” said Campo.

  

“He is the one we thought was dying and he told me to have courage. And you know what, I did after that.”

In 2012, Father Groeschel retired from public life, following a minor stroke, and was welcomed by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Totowa, N.J. 

In September of that year, Father Groeschel stepped down as host of EWTN’s Sunday Night Prime, after he made statements in the Register suggesting that a minor is “the seducer” in “a lot” of sexual abuse cases, and that many abusers on their first offense should not go to jail “because their intention was not committing a crime.”

He subsequently apologized for the comments, as did his religious community, the Register and EWTN, who stressed that the priest’s physical health and mental clarity were both declining, noting that these comments did not reflect his life’s work.

Father Groeschel’s death on Oct. 3 came in the wake of a recent fall that affected the same arm that had been shattered after he was hit by the car. 

His physicians believed he was too weak for surgery and sent him home.

Following St. Francis

Father Groeschel’s death occurred as his community celebrated the vigil of the feast of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscans, whose feast day is Oct. 4.

Father Apostoli noted that Father Groeschel died late in the evening of Oct. 3, the same date St. Francis died during vespers.

“I see it as a blessing that he died on the feast of St. Francis to whom he was so dedicated,” he said. “After all, through his leadership and under his guidance a new Franciscan family came into existence — the Community of Friars of the Renewal.”

Details for Father Groeschel’s wake and funeral will be forthcoming.

“He poured himself out for others no matter what the cost — and sometimes the cost to him was very great,” said the Community of the Friars of the Renewal in a statement.

“To have known him was to have been helped by him and even loved by him.”

Rest in Peace Fr. Benedict

I found the following at Deacon Greg's site:

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel, beloved priest and preacher, died on October 3, 2014, the vigil of the Feast of St. Francis, after complications with an ongoing illness. He was 81.

Fr. Benedict was a founder of the Community of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR), a reform community started in 1987 by eight Capuchin Friars based in New York City. A priest and psychologist, he was director of Trinity Retreat House in Larchmont, New York, and alsotaught Pastoral Psychology for many years at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie. Fr. Benedict was a popular writer, preacher, retreat master, and evangelist on Catholic television. His greatest joy was serving the poor and underprivileged. Founder of St. Francis House and Good Counsel Homes, he also served as chaplain at Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry for 14 years.

Always deeply concerned with the welfare of others, he tirelessly provided food, clothing, and assistance to people in need—people he always considered his friends.

Wrote Fr. John Paul Ouellette, Community Servant, Franciscan Friars of the Renewal: “We are deeply saddened by the death of Fr. Benedict. He was an example to us all. His fidelity and service to the Church and commitment to our Franciscan way of life will have a tremendous impact for generations to come.”Details for the wake and funeral will be forth coming.

Ohio priest dies of cancer two days after ordination

Who will take his place?  We need to pray for more vocations!  May he rest in peace:

(CNA) Father Scott R. Carroll, ordained a priest of the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, on May 8, died of cancer two days later after battling the disease for some time.

Bishop Leonard P. Blair of Toledo ordained the transitional deacon a priest at his parents' home with immediate family members present. He was named associate pastor of his home parish, St. Joseph in Maumee, a Toledo suburb.

The ordination Mass was concelebrated by the priests of St. Joseph parish, Frs. Keith Stripe and Kishore Kottana, and by the diocesan vocations director, Monsignor Charles Singler.

Bishop Blair has asked that all the faithful of the Toledo diocese continue to remember Fr. Carroll in their prayers.

Fr. Carroll was due to be ordained with his classmates on June 22, but “it became clear this week that an earlier ordination might be prudent,” the diocesan vocations office said.

Born in 1966 to Robert and the late Patricia Carroll, the priest is the step-son of Connie Carroll, and is also survived by his brothers Patrick and Tim.

He studied education at the University of Toledo and went on to get a master's in history there as well. He also attained a master's degree in educational administration from the University of Dayton and taught middle school social studies before entering seminary.

Before finishing his studies at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana, Fr. Carroll had attended Holy Spirit Seminary. He did summer ministry at St. Paul in Norwalk and at his home parish, and did a pastoral year at St. Paul.

In addition to teaching and history, Fr. Carroll was interested in 4-H and sports.

He wrote on Toledo's vocations website that “I consider the vocation of priesthood to be both the most demanding and rewarding thing that God could ever call me to do. It is my duty to find out if this is what is meant for me, to represent Jesus by teaching, learning and just being there for people.”

Shortly after the ordination, his classmate Mike Keucher of the Indianapolis archdiocese, said on his blog, “The Long Journey Into Light,” that Fr. Carroll “is one of the most humble, gentle folks here.”

He noted that Fr. Carroll was graced to die just after having finished saying Mass.

“When it was over, he fell asleep and died shortly thereafter,” Keucher wrote.

Prayer Need: A Tragic Accident Takes the Life of A Newly Ordained Salesian Priest

The following tragic news comes from our Salesians in the Dominican Republic:

Fr. Víctor Martínez was heading to his hometown to celebrate his first mass when he was tragically killed in an accident.

(Decosal - Jarabacoa) - Fr. Víctor Martínez, SDB died Sunday in a tragic road accident when the newly ordained priest who was traveling with family and friends to celebrate his first Mass in his hometown of Puerto Plata.

Fr. Victor Martinez, a Salesian of Don Bosco, was ordained yesterday at the Parish of Mary Help of Christians in Jarabacoa at the hands of Bishop Julius Caesar Corniel, Bishop of Puerto Plata. He was heading home today to celebrate his first Mass with his family and friends. The accident also killed an uncle of the priest and injured several other people.

The news has brought deep sorrow upon the whole Salesian Family who just yesterday celebrated joyfully his priestly ordination. The Reverend Father Victor Pichardo, Provincial of the Salesians, announced with deep sorrow the news to the youth of all the Salesian houses that were in the concluding Eucharist of Don Bosco Summer Camp. These same young people had witnessed the joyful celebration of the ordination of Fr. Victor the day before and received his first blessing.

Fr. Victor Martinez was born on September 17, 1982 in the city of Puerto Plata. He joined the Salesian Domingo Savio Aspirantate at Jarabacoa in 2000. His last four years were as a theology student at the Salesian Seminary in Guadalajara, Mexico. He was ordained a priest one day before his death.

Pro-Life Student Advocate Jon Scharfenberger Passes Away

The following comes from Lifenews.com:

Jon Scharfenberger, a staff member for Students for Life of America, passed away Tuesday morning from complications suffered after a tragic automobile accident that also claimed the lives of Kortney Blythe Gordon and her unborn baby Sophy.

Gordon, Scharfenberger and two pro-life students were driving back from the Students for Life of America Georgia conference when their vehicle was struck by another head on in a massive collision. The driver of the other vehicle was reportedly speeding and passing cars on a two-lane road. Gordon and her unborn child, Sophy, were immediately killed upon impact and Scharfenberger was in critical condition following the accident.

“The team at SFLA is beyond saddened by the news that Jon Scharfenberger, Pregnant on Campus Coordinator and Campus Support Coordinator for Students for Life of America, passed away this morning due to complications from injuries he sustained from the same car accident that claimed the life of SFLA leader Kortney Blythe Gordon and her pre-born daughter, Sophy, on October 8th,” SFLA said in a statement.

“Jon had many successes in his short time with us at SFLA, including establishing a pro-life campus group at Florida International University that was successful in saving the life of a pre-born baby, a mere one week after its creation,” SFLA said. “We continue to offer prayers of support for Jon’s family and friends and grieve during this incredibly difficult time for our organization and mission.”

“Because of your outpouring, the team at SFLA was able to pay Kortney and Sophy’s burial costs 100%. We encourage all of our supporters to donate to help pay for Jon’s burial costs as well.  All proceeds are tax-deductible and 100% of gifts received through this page or otherwise noted will be donated to the Scharfenberger family,” SFLA said. “All of our love and prayers to Jon, Kortney, Sophy, and the Scharfenberger, Blythe, and Gordon families.”

On Monday of last week, SFLA executive director Kristan Hawkins he was not doing well and she had flown to Georgia to be with Jon and his family.

After the accident, Gerard Nadal, the director of Medical Students for Life and a LifeNews blogger, kept the pro-life community informed of Jon’s condition. Yesterday, Nadal reported that Scharfenberger was facing significant medical difficulties.

“Late yesterday I received word that the physicians have induced a 72-hour coma in Jon. In the meantime, we wait, and hope, and pray,” he wrote Monday morning. Later in the day, he added, “Jon has spiked a fever of 108 degrees F, which can be lethal. Urgent prayers are needed as this battle has taken a terrible turn for him.”

Scharfenberger was the Campus Support Coordinator and Pregnant on Campus Coordinator for Students for Life of America and he traveled to college campuses working with pro-life groups to create and obtain tangible goals that impact both their campus and local community. He worked to provide a vision and plan to the over 600 campus pro-life groups across the nation by creating guides and projects that pro-life groups can use in order to provide timely and essential resources to students facing unplanned, crisis pregnancies.

A native of Warwick, New York, Jon graduated with a BA in Philosophy from Ave Maria University in the spring of 2011. He served as President of AMU Students for Life where he led many successful pro-life initiatives. In his years as President, he helped fundraise over $30,000 for the club and committed membership soared from 30 members to over 150 by his final year. In September, 2009 he organized a successful overnight prayer vigil to protest the opening of a new Planned Parenthood, which gained widespread media coverage.

He interned for SFLA in the summer of 2010 and also gained experience on Capitol Hill as an intern for Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS.) Jon joined SFLA in the summer of 2011 to continue to train and equip the next generation of pro-life leaders. Jon also interned at the National Right to Life Committee.

Remebering Archbishop Hannan

Archbishop Hannan: An Amazing Life

Réquiem ætérnam dona eis Dómine

Fr. Kenneth Allen has posted on the funeral of Archbishop Hannan in New Orleans.  The Archbishop's funeral began at the seminary with the priests of the Archdiocese.  Cardinal Egan of New York joined them for the evening prayer service.

Archbishop Philip Hannan has plenty of company beneath St. Louis Cathedral

Hat tip to the Deacon's Bench for this one! The following comes from NOLA.com:

To walk up the marble tile center aisle of St. Louis Cathedral is to step over and past the bones of people. Lots of people.

Graphic: Where, how Archbishop Philip Hannan will be buried (click to enlarge)

The triple-spired cathedral that is the international symbol for New Orleans is more than a church. It’s a working cemetery as well.

The mortal remains of 11 bishops and archbishops, as well as the unmarked graves of scores of early residents of the French and Spanish colony lie under the cathedral’s floor.

On Thursday, the cathedral will receive another body when hundreds of priests, bishops, and members of the general public gather celebrate a funeral Mass for Archbishop Philip Hannan.

Hannan died early Thursday at age 98, having spent 23 years as archbishop and another 23 years in an active public retirement in and around New Orleans. By long tradition, Catholic bishops and archbishops are buried in or near their cathedrals.

After his funeral Mass, Hannan’s remains will be lowered into a crypt below the crimson carpet in the sanctuary in front of the altar, where he will lie alongside eight predecessors.

An ancient tradition

Burying the honored dead within churches — or more accurately, building churches atop the remains of honored dead -- is an ancient tradition, dating to the earliest days of Christianity, said Monsignor Crosby Kern, the cathedral’s rector.

The temporal center of Roman Catholicism, St. Peter’s Basilica, is the most recent of several churches built over the site that tradition holds is the grave of Simon Peter, the fisherman Jesus picked to lead the church.

Recent archeology seems to have confirmed that St. Peter’s is, in fact, atop the grave of the apostle.

Later, Christians celebrated the Eucharist on the very tombs of the martyred dead, partly in the belief that those dead heroes were “friends of God” who would help carry forward their prayers in heaven, according to Ken Woodward, author of “Making Saints,” an account of the Catholic church’s sanctification process.

Saints' relics entombed in altars

For centuries, Catholic altars worldwide were required to keep the link between worship and tombs by containing a tiny relic of a saint — perhaps a sliver of bone — making each altar a symbolic tomb, said Monsignor Ken Hedrick of the archdiocese’s Office of Worship. The practice is no longer required, but strongly encouraged, he said.

For tens of millions of Christians, the Protestant Reformation eliminated the role of intercessory saints, and dismissed any inclination to draw near to their remains in prayer, in church or elsewhere.

Read the rest here.

But even so, the custom of burial in church is not restricted to Catholicism.

The Episcopal Church’s Washington National Cathedral, technically the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and Paul, houses the remains of more than a dozen people, including writer Helen Keller and President Woodrow Wilson.

Archbishop Philip Hannan, Rest in Peace

The following comes from the NOLA site:

Philip Matthew Hannan, the archbishop who built an ever-widening network of services for the poor during nearly a quarter-century as the pastor of nearly a half-million New Orleans’ Catholics, died Thursday at 3 a.m. at Chateau de Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New Orleans said. He was 98.


Archbishop Hannan died on the 46th anniversary of his appointment to New Orleans.


Archbishop Hannan "truly made New Orleans his home. This was his parish and his archdiocese, and it had no boundaries,' Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement.


At his death, Archbishop Hannan was the senior archbishop or bishop in the American hierarchy, and the third oldest, behind retired Archbishop Peter Gerety of Newark, 99, and retired Bishop Joseph McLaughlin of Buffalo, 98.


Archbishop Hannan enjoyed a long and robust public retirement well into his 90s. But though free of major chronic illness, he became more frail year by year.

Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B. (1943-2011)

Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B. (1943-2011)

By Father Michael Mendl, S.D.B.

            After a long bout with cancer, Father Patrick Diver, S.D.B., died early in the morning of August 6, 2011, at Father Hudson House, a hospice in Elizabeth, N.J. He was 68.

            Father Diver was born in Boston on August 5, 1943, to Patrick and Mary Connolly Diver. Within the month he was baptized at St. Margaret’s Church in Dorchester, which remained the family’s parish.

            Following his graduation from Don Bosco Technical High School in Boston in 1961, Patrick enrolled in Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., as a candidate for Salesian life. In August 1962 he entered the novitiate, also in Newton, and made his first profession of religious vows on August 16, 1963.

            Like all Salesian seminarians, Brother Diver majored in philosophy at Don Bosco College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in June 1967. He minored in classical languages.

            Having volunteered for the foreign missions, Brother Diver was sent to the Philippines, where he taught at Don Bosco Academy in Pampanga, the province’s high school seminary, from 1967 to 1970. The students greatly appreciated him as a teacher and friend. At the same time he undertook a master’s program in guidance and counseling at De La Salle College’s Graduate School of Education in Manila, completing his degree in May 1970. One of the papers that he presented for the degree was titled “The Counselor in the Salesian System of Education.”

            Brother Diver returned to the U.S. in 1970 to study theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio. He was ordained in Columbus on March 30, 1974, and awarded a master of arts in theology from the Josephinum in June of that year.

            Father Diver’s first priestly assignment as dean of students at Don Bosco College in Newton (1974-1976). Twenty-one years of high school apostolate followed, during which he ministered as a guidance counselor at St. Dominic Savio High School in East Boston (1976-1980), treasurer at Dom Savio (1980-1984), and director of the school (1989-1995); he was treasurer at Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa (1984-1988) and then principal there (1988-1989), and guidance counselor at Don Bosco Technical High School in Paterson, N.J. (1995-1997). He later had another short stint as guidance counselor at Savio Prep in East Boston (2003-2004).

            Father Diver made a lasting impression on the young men at Savio. One alumnus, C. David Surface, writes: “He was the most honest and caring priest I have ever known. His influence helped to shape my life both professionally and from a family perspective…. I will never forget him and how he made my days at Savio truly special.”

            During his first assignment in East Boston he was certified as a school guidance counselor in Massachusetts (1978).

            Father Diver worked in parishes, too. He was pastor of Mary Help of Christians Church in Manhattan for a year (1997-1998), associate pastor at Nativity Church in Washington, D.C. (2002), acting pastor of St. Theresa’s Church in Leeds, Ala. (2003), and pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Church in Elizabeth, N.J., and director of the Salesian community there (2004-2010).

            From 1998 to 2002 Father Diver was director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, coordinating a vast fundraising program in service to Salesian missionary activities all over the world.

            In 2007, while he was pastor in Elizabeth, Father Diver was found to have colon cancer and went through a long treatment and recovery.

            In the summer of 2010 Father Diver completed his pastorate and directorship in Elizabeth and was assigned once more to the formation of young Salesians as a very experienced and highly valued staff member at the Don Bosco Residence in Orange, N.J. Late in the spring of 2011 cancer returned in a very serious form. When treatment was unavailing, he entered hospice care.

            Brother Gustavo Ramirez, S.D.B., one of the young Salesians from Orange, said of him: “Father Pat Diver was a great example of perseverance and love for the young. I will always remember him as the vital man who loved the young to the last minute of his life.”

            Father Diver is survived by his sisters Kathleen Tubman and Maureen Fitzgerald, both of the Boston area, and by his Salesian confreres of the New Rochelle Province.

            The funeral arrangements for Father Diver are:

            Wake at Saint Anthony of Padua Church, 853 Third Avenue, Elizabeth, N.J., 07202, on Monday, August 8, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. and on Tuesday, August 9, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

            Mass of Christian Burial at Saint Anthony’s, August 9 at 7:30 p.m. Father Thomas Dunne, S.D.B., provincial, will preside, and Father Thomas Ruekert, S.D.B., will preach.

            Burial in the Diver family plot at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Mass., on Wednesday, August 10, at 1:00 p.m.