Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1899-07-01
FATHER DUCEY
Has Completed His House of
Repose For Stranger
Dead.

humanity, says the New York Journal.
Those who are privileged to have their
loved ones die at home may never have
considered the restitution of even wealthy
strangers within our city gates to whom
it may happen, and it happens every day
that they die friendless in hotel or
clearinghouse from which they must be
Immediately removed that no suspicion
of harboring the dead may disturb the
peace of mind of their one-time fellow
occupants i'll the place from which in
spirit they have passed away.
Our clergy, our physicians and our
undertakes have opportunity to know
that the body of the man or woman who
dies in hotel or clearinghouse is at
once taken to the nearest undertaker's
shop to be stored until claimed by rela-
tives or friends. A mother who hurries
desperately across the continent at the
news that her son or daughter is lying
dangerously i'll and alone in a strange
city, often reaches here to find that death
has been quicker than che; from a clerk
of the hotel where her child has lived she
learns that the body is at such and-such
an undertaker's. In this there is no
intentional inhumanity; one can not
expect hotel to house the dead.
The Burial Company in Twenty-third
street offers the stranger dead temporary
accommodations-"burial parlors" they
are called-which are certainly different
from the ordinary undertaker's shop; but
until today no one has offered the dead
that shelter which may be expected only
and, alas! not always from personal
friends.
Father Thomas J. Ducey, rector of St.
blouse of Repose for the Dead" and
he offers it, not alone to the members of
his church and creed, but to sorrowing
humanity-men and women, the church
member and the non-member. whose
dead have nowhere TO be lain pending
family arrangements for their burial.
While many time Father Ducey has
given the use of his private residence to
the stranger dead, for whom there was
mo room at the inn, ;" he has for eighteen
years sheltered in the crypt of his church
aud before its altar those of his creed who
have died in this city away from their
homes, and he wishes ME to say that the
Catholic dead will still find a resting
place before st. Leos altar.
| For the Protestant dead this blouse OF
Repose, set in the midst of greenery and
secluded from the street like private
dwelling in a private park, winding
gravel path to the door, gay with flower
beds and stretch of grass, with the walls
of St. Leo's church OIL the right and Of
the neighboring building on the left, soon
to be covered with the ivy vines already
growing there-this house is truly a
'house beautiful. Even in the vesti
buled entrance, with its marbled tiles and
the little balcony in which musicians may
be placed, the visitor loses sight of the
revolving aspect of death, and as he goes
further into the house he remembers only
the peace of death and that better "peacs
which passes all understanding, and
must surely bring comfort to the bereaved
persons whose loved ones have received
here gracious hospitality.
Not penny of the money of Father
Ducey's church has gone to buy the lanC
for the house or to erect the building. H.
hopes to maintain it by the unsolicited
gifts of those who have used its privilege
and have the means TO contribute to it
support. But there will never be money
charge for a hospitality which is surel,
without price. The work, as have said
is non-sectarian. The house is open t
anyone who needs its good offices. Re
ligious services will be directed and con
Quoted by minister of the dead man o
: woman's religious belief.
So repeatedly has Father Ducey bee
, called to the bedside of the sick and dyin
in hotels and clearinghouse in his dis
: trict that for years he has longed for
: building where the dead might be treate
! with human sympathy and respect an
: their families spared the torture of thei
being carted off like so much refuse ella
swept out OF the path OF the living. "A
/. last Father Ducey carried out his plan
a so far as it lay in his power to perfect hi
: ideal. Should not the men and wome
friends of the Protestant dead for whor
t this Catholic priest labors lend helpin
hand to place his work on a secure four
dalton?
The ground and the building have co:
1 over $65, 900. Father Ducey, however
n feels confident that his Protestant breth
: rem throughout the country will do TO
him what his friends here in New Yor
have already done, and that is to contrib
ute in large or in small sums the mean
i to free the property from debt and t
: establish the work on permanent basi
so that it may be carried on withou
n interruption after he who is the founde
: has passed away.
nIrCuuD MAapp DEL pACpn