Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-23
Tells Thousands Gathered at
- Cathedral that His Life
Long Friend Had Fremont
tion End Was Near; "You
Will Come to Harrisburg to
Preach Over My Coffin" He
Said Just Two Weeks Ago

Bishop McCort's sermon at Bishop
Shanahan's funeral was as follows:
Behold a great Priest who in his
days pleased God and was found just:
therefore by an oath, hath the LORD
made him to increase over his people.
-ECcl.
1.-TWO weeks ago I said to Bishop
Shanahan, Bishop, I will so to liar
risburg in a few years to preach at
your golden jubilee No. he an
swered. you will come to Harrisburg
10 preach over my coffin l did not
then attach Importance to his words,
nor suspect that he then feared his
end was near, for the unsellshness
that was so characteristic OF him MADE
him conceal. even from his friends,
the illness that was fast sappins his
vitality. His death has given to his
words the character of a testament
and l come to-day to fulfill it and to
place upon the bier of my friend from
boyhood a tribute of loving ad-
miration and profound respect; to
take with you, priests and people, les
sons of inspiration from his exalted en-
ample and to pray with you that God
may reward his noble life, and that
the light of heaven may shine upon his
holy soul.
A Great Loss
by the death of Bishop Shanahan
the church of God has lost a great
priest; the diocese of Harrisburg a
great bishop, and his country a great
citizen.
More than forty-seven years ago
John Walter Shanahan, frail, young
levite, presented himself in the sane
tuary of God to crave priestly ordi-
nation from the hands of his brother
who had recently been created the
first bishop of Harrisburg. 1t is given
TO few to bring TO the ceremony oil
their ordination so profound reallza-
tion of the momentousness of the act:
he had inherited from pious Catholic
parents the traditional reverence and
respect for the priestly office; his un-
usually gifted mind had carefully con-
sidered the sublimity of the sacerdotal
dignity, the holiness of its ministra-
ton, and the almost unlimited power
for doing good that a priest possesses;
but he realized, too, the utter and COM
plete self-sacrifice that must charac-
terize the priest who will do all that
God wishes him to do. His frail health
forbade the thought that his years
would be many; the humility of his
soul that they would be more than
ordinarily fruitful; but the little that
he thought he had he wished TO give
lnreservedly TO the cause cf Jesus
Christ. On that day began ministry
that has been mighty in its endeavors,
marvellous in its works and glorious
for the Catholic Church and its priest
hood in this State.
4 True Minister
ION such an occasion il were I'M
possible to follow his manifold actiVi-
Ties; he labored in many fields and in
each he left the impress of his great
ness; in every place he has been the
true minister of his Master, winning
the love of his own people by untiring
devotion and commanding the respect
of all by the unspotted integrity of his
life Scrupulously outstanding his
time, he divided it between prayer and
study and the active work of his min
istry. Realizing that of himself he
was nothing, but his whole sufhciency
was from God, he spent hours daily
i'm communion with his Master that
he might have light to know his full
duty and strength to do it; apprehen-
sive lest danger might come to his
people through fault of his, he con-
tinually renewed the studies of his
youth and stored his mind with the
riches of wisdom that enabled him to
act prudently in every emergency;
knowing that God would demand Of
him an account of the souls entrusted
10 his keeping, he was fearfully so
licitous for their welfare. Lucidly and
simply. in season and out of season,
he instructed his people that they
might be sanctiled in the Word of