By George P. Matysek Jr. | Catholic News Service
BALTIMORE – Church leaders from around the country took part in the funeral Mass March 28 for Cardinal William Henry Keeler, Baltimore’s 14th archbishop, who was an international leader in Catholic-Jewish relations.
The Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in Mary Our Queen Cathedral by Archbishop William E. Lori, Baltimore’s current archbishop, with six cardinals and 30 bishops including Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., concelebrating.
The cardinal’s body was interred in the basilica crypt following the funeral Mass.
Describing Cardinal Keeler as a “tornado” of nonstop work who considered it the “highest form of asceticism to never waste a moment,” the cardinal’s first priest-secretary in the Archdiocese of Baltimore said his boss also had a caring, pastoral side.
Father Michael White made the comments the day before, in his homily at the March 27 vespers service for the late cardinal at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore.
At the vespers service, Father White in his homily recalled that when the cardinal was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1994, he took time out of a whirlwind schedule of activity in Rome to show concern for a member of the Swiss Guard whose mother had been ill.
The cardinal walked up to the guard and called him by name, Father White remembered in amazement, asking how the guard’s mother was doing. When the cardinal found out the woman had died, he immediately pulled out his pocket calendar and scheduled a Mass for her on the spot, inviting the guard to attend.
As Cardinal Keeler walked away, Father White recalled, the shaken guard whispered to no one in particular: “There goes a prince.”
Cardinal Keeler headed the Baltimore Archdiocese from 1989 until his retirement in 2007. He died March 23 at age 86.
Fond Memories
Hundreds of mourners streamed past his open casket March 27 before and after the liturgy as members of the Knights of Columbus and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem stood at attention through the night.
Among the mourners who paused beside the cardinal’s body were Little Sisters of the Poor, who had cared for him at St. Martin’s Home for the Aged as the cardinal’s health declined over the past several years. Others included St. Teresa of Kolkata’s Missionaries of Charity, whom the cardinal had brought to Baltimore to care for dying AIDS patients at the Gift of Hope near St. Wenceslaus in East Baltimore.
One man traced the sign of the cross on the cardinal’s forehead and lovingly touched the cardinal’s chin. Another woman gently kissed the cardinal’s forehead. Others bowed or made the sign of the cross as they stood before the 14th archbishop of Baltimore.
In his homily, Father White recounted how the cardinal was running late on Father White’s first day as the cardinal’s priest-secretary. Father White came upon a yellow light as he drove the cardinal and a high-ranking Vatican official to Washington for an event hosted by Cardinal James A. Hickey, then archbishop of Washington, in honor of the patriarch of Constantinople and a delegation of Greek bishops.
“The cardinal, who was multitasking,” Father White recalled, “lifted his head and shot me a look. I came to call it ‘The Look’: a steel-gray squint I came to know well and experience often. It could communicate a range of reactions from ‘this is totally unacceptable’ to ‘you’re fired.'”
The cardinal asked Father White to keep going.
Before long, a police officer pulled them over, Father White said, leading the Vatican official to believe they were getting a police escort. Upon seeing who was in the car, the police officer let them go with a request only to slow down — a request that was promptly ignored by the cardinal. After that car ride, Father White said, and even more adventures once the group made it to Washington, the young priest-secretary knew he was “in over his head.”
Extolling Cardinal Keeler for having a “genius” for collaboration and “an instinctive eye for the big picture and long-term goals, Father White said the cardinal was the ultimate “bishop’s bishop.”
Father White, pastor of Church of the Nativity in Timonium, recalled how the cardinal, despite declining health, made a trip to Rome in 2011 for the beatification of St. John Paul II. Among many “lasts,” it would be the cardinal’s last trip to Rome, the last time he preached, the last time he offered a public Mass and his last trip anywhere.
On the day they departed Rome, Cardinal Keeler and Father White were driven to the top of a hill in Rome that offered a beautiful vista of the Eternal City. The cardinal was immersed in paperwork, yet, at Father White’s prodding, finally looked up to see the view. The cardinal sighed deeply, Father White said, and a single tear flowed down his cheek. The only other time Father White saw the cardinal shed a tear was when his mother died.
“Rome was like a mother to him,” Father White said, “and he was her son.”
A Spiritual Shepherd
At the conclusion of the vespers service, Archbishop Lori said the Baltimore Archdiocese was blessed to have the cardinal as its spiritual shepherd. He thanked members of the cardinal’s family for “sharing the cardinal with us low these many years.”
“From your family has sprung a wise and loving shepherd, a good friend and a great leader,” the archbishop said. “So, indeed, may you be consoled as we lovingly return the great Cardinal Keeler to his Creator and to his Redeemer.”
The archbishop drew applause for the Little Sisters of the Poor and Father William Foley, director of pastoral care for retired priests, who cared for the cardinal in his later years. Father White also reprised his role as the cardinal’s priest-secretary in Cardinal Keeler’s latter years.
“Going to heaven with the Little Sisters at your death bed,” the archbishop said, “(is) sort of a first-class ticket.”
Moments before paying her respects to the cardinal, Charlotte O’Conor told the Catholic Review, Baltimore’s archdiocesan news outlet, that her cousin was a “wonderful human being” who always made time for his family.
“He married us,” said O’Conor, who was accompanied by her husband, Philip. “He’s just been so generous with his time to help our family and be there for the kids and communion and confirmations. He never forgot us. He always had our backs.”
“He was very humble and he was very firm at the same time,” O’Conor added, “and I think that combination is really unusual.”