The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-08
tr. DOnahue Tells Of Funeral Of
 Cardinal Gibbons


 so much and so varied comment as the obsequies of Cardinal Gib- bonS at Baltimore last week. The
 Ilmes IS fortunate in being able to present to it's readers tonight a review of the occasion from the lips Of one of the eyewitnesses of the occasion from Bridgeport, Rev. George Donahue of St. Augustine's s church, who attended the funeral with the pastor of that church, Rev. James B. NihiIl Fr. Donahue stresses view of the event which mystical side. He touched on this briefly in his sermon last Sunday, and amplified the view for a Times" representative.
 ''The saddest thing in life" Fr. Donahue said today when asked to give his impression of the event, '-is expressed by Catholicism with a beauty that reigns and lives only in the world of poesy. While the press very generously gave space to the biographical facts and fea- lures of Cardinal Gibbons career, my purpose is to stress the beauty of Mother Church in the act of sor- rowing for one of her famed sons whose career death had closed.
 T reached the vicinity of the Ca thedral about 9 o'clock and found the various streets leading thereto OIiS SOlIO IIlcSS OI humanity. InG young and old, black and white, men of varied faiths, the children, the aged, some robust, some limp and halting, made up the crowd. They stood in the rain, a silent, sor- rowing crowd. I said to my friend, Here is the eulogy of Cardinal Gib- bonS. Another one will be spoken in the Cathedral, but the one that humanity will remember longest is spoken by this silent crowd un- der this gray sky
 The procession started about 0 o'clock. If ykere a poet I might be able to describe it. However, if you can visualize a dark day with gentle rain falling and regiments of preIates in black and white brown and cream colored, purple and violent red, moving like a col orfu1 blur throug-- the rain, if you can visualize all this, you have a mere suggestion of that colorfuI procession on it's way to the Cathe- dral.
 within the Cathedral the Mass started promptly at 10:30. The man who understands every word and meaning of the Catholic Mass will of the Philadelphia papers that when the first requiem echoed through the Cathedral every one for the moment was lost, had succumb- ed to the emotions of the event. Like a mother crooningly bewailing her dead son, Mother Church plead ed for rest for the great Cardinal Not that there is any rest in Heaven in the sense of inactivity, for who can imagine the mind of a Gibbons or the mind of a Newman, or the mind of a Dante or the mind of Shakespeare inactive before the throne of God? The life of the in tellect is simply and infinitely in- tensified. Then out of the dark ness, as the Mass proceeded came the triumphant assurance of St. Paul that we shall all rise again, and snatching victory from it's hands. Then the great and famed Dies Irae followed. Then again ut of the darkness came the more divine assurance from the lips of Christ that every man who believes in Christ shall not die forever.
 ''In brief, the august sacrifice went on and was soon complete and the choir again closed as it began with a notherly and a ten der pleading for rest for Cardinal Gibbons, rest from the cares of his office, rest from the noises of earth, rest from the ways of speech of men, to be possessed by the rest of Heaven which surpasses all under standing.
 ''The sermon of Archbishop Glennon followed Sometimes I have feared that Catholic pulpit or atory like old gold had grown dim but the pulpit effort of the Arch bishop of St. Louis gave me full reassurance. His appearance was commanding as well as beautiful. He was in every sense literary preacher. He had in the fullest the art of clothing Catholic dogma as well as the events of Gibbons career in lovely, majestic, poetic, well-balanced phrases. He had a voice like some perfectly made bell and he knew how to ring it sweet ly. I also thought of what they used to say of Newman's preaching at Oxford, that his voice sounded like the musical dripping of water in a cave The world is now fla miliar with the chief features of his sermon and doubtless has already appreciated
 '@Then came the final abso1utions. One bishop, then another, then an other and finally fourth circled the bier. It actually looked as though Mother Church was reluct- ant to take a final farewell of her cardinalatia1 son. Blessed water was sprinkIed upon his remains and little clouds of incense circled about him fragrantly But the end fin ally came as all things earthly must. Whilst the vast congregation sat like so many rapt statues and all the mitred heads were still and cheeks were profaned with sincere tears, Mother Church had the last as she had the first word, and once more there was a prayer for rest Rest. eternal rest, grant unto him, oh, Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon hin!'' The great pro- cession then became the recessional and once like so many lovely colors running in the rain it pleasantly blurred the gray day.