Services for Bishop Reilly bring hundreds from around New England

By Tanya Connor
  The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Bishop Daniel Patrick Reilly, fourth bishop of Worcester, was honored in death, as in life, by people from the dioceses where he was stationed, and by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, OFM Cap., archbishop of Boston; other New England bishops, and Trappist Abbot Vincent Rogers of St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer. They came to St. Paul Cathedral Tuesday and/or Wednesday for his wake and funeral.  

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Bishop McManus, Bishop Reilly’s successor, and Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, his former secretary, preached at the services and shared memories, as did people who came to pay their respects.
 
Tuesday afternoon Bishop McManus presided over the Rite of Reception, for which Bishop Reilly’s casket was brought into the cathedral and a Liturgy of the Word celebrated.  

The funeral Mass Wednesday drew hundreds of clergy, religious and laity. Bishop McManus read a letter from the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, imparting Pope Francis’ blessing on mourners, recognizing Bishop Reilly’s service and entrusting his soul to Christ.
After the funeral, Bishop Reilly’s body was taken to St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston, Rhode Island, for the committal service and burial.

Among those playing a role in the funeral were Knights and Ladies of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and Knights of Columbus. Fourth-degree Knights of Columbus from Assemblies 398, 399 and 400 and a District Master and former District Master of Massachusetts also formed an honor guard Tuesday.

Edwin Hiester, of the Knights’ council at Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester, told The Catholic Free Press that in the mid 1990s Bishop Reilly “came to throw out the first ball” at a softball game in Shrewsbury between Council 4181 and professional athletes from Boston-area teams.

“He initially said he wasn’t going to stick around,” but he enjoyed the game so much that he stayed, Mr. Hiester said.

Thomas Keegan, who has photographed diocesan events for decades, shared a liturgical memory. When he was waiting to photograph the bishop’s installation as bishop of the Worcester Diocese “everybody was ready to go” into Mass when Bishop Reilly put on the mitre.

“It went right down over his ears,” Mr. Keegan said.  

Quipped the bishop, “I’ve been accused of having a big head, but evidently it’s not big enough!”  

Msgr. James A. Mongelluzzo, then the cathedral rector, “made a beeline to the rectory and came back with a mitre that fit,” said Mr. Keegan, who refrained from photographing this mishap.

Others worked with the bishop in different capacities. John Carey, an ethicist on the Norwich Diocese’s medical ethics committee in the early 1990s, recalled Bishop Reilly’s dedication to their work when he was bishop there.  

“He was totally involved in what we were doing,” Mr. Carey said. The bishop faithfully attended meetings, which always included a social element.

“I just respect how good he was to so many of the religious communities in the diocese,” said Ernest Rivard, a Passionist Associate and member of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Northborough. He said Bishop Reilly supported the retreats the Passionists offered at Calvary Retreat Center in Shrewsbury, where Mr. Rivard was retreat director before it closed in 2009. The bishop even permitted a collection for the retreat center in parishes throughout the diocese, he said, and received the Passionist Witness Award. The Passionists enjoyed having him around; “he was good for a laugh,” among other things, Mr. Rivard recalled.

Among religious who came to pay their respects to Bishop Reilly Tuesday were about 13 Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church from the Norwich Diocese. Sister Gabriel Fassl said he was very good to them.

Religious sisters also came from the Norwich Diocese for the funeral, as did clergy and, of course, family members, from the Providence Diocese, where Bishop Reilly grew up and served as a priest.  

Preaching at the wake, Msgr. Sullivan, pastor of Christ the King Parish, noted that Bishop Reilly was 71 years a priest, 49 a bishop – 19 in Norwich, 10 as ordinary in Worcester, where he then lived in retirement for 20 more years.

Bishops are pastors, called to teach, sanctify and govern, and “Bishop Reilly embodied all this,” Msgr. Sullivan said. “He taught the truth without ambiguity, as does Bishop McManus … led us to deepen our spirituality and strengthened our diocese. And he did it ‘in kindness and in truth,’” he said, referring to Bishop Reilly’s episcopal motto.

“He championed the dignity of human life from conception to natural death,” inaugurated the diocese’s men’s conference, led outdoor processions, and worked to strengthen Catholic schools and shore up resources with endowments, Msgr. Sullivan said.

“He came to Worcester like a thunderbolt,” he said of Bishop Reilly. “Accepting every invitation, he went everywhere. … In Norwich, he would tell me, they joked about him ‘cutting the ceremonial ribbon at every new gas station in the State of Connecticut.’ That didn’t trouble him. The presence of the Church in society should be highly visible.”

Msgr. Sullivan recalled going with the bishop to Suney’s Pub in Worcester for fish and chips.  
“But I often wondered if he really wanted to eat,” he said. “He went there to meet people. He’d stop at every table.”

And who but Bishop Reilly could get the White House staff singing Catholic hymns – when he joined President Clinton on a trip to Ireland?

Another unusual opportunity was preaching to Lutherans of New England gathered to elect their new bishop in 2000.  

But, as Bishop McManus said in the funeral homily, Bishop Reilly lived out the second reading used at that Mass: “I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8). As a teenager, Bishop Reilly answered Christ’s call to pursue priesthood, and, until his death June 18 this year, he “never once looked back,” Bishop McManus said. He desired to pursue Jesus in time and for eternity.
Bishop McManus recalled meeting this priest upon entering the Seminary of Our Lady of Providence, Bishop Reilly’s alma mater.  

At their last meeting, for the retired bishop’s 96th birthday last month, Bishop Reilly grabbed Bishop McManus’ hand, looked him in the eyes and said, “Hasn’t it been a great life to be a priest and bishop?”

Bishop McManus shared a story from that life. On a papal visit in 2004, Bishop Reilly kissed Pope John Paul II’s ring – a tender gesture of faithful devotion and love that made a deep and lasting impression on Bishop McManus.

Bishops are to treat their priests as sons and friends, Bishop McManus said, recalling how Bishop Reilly congratulated them on accomplishments and listened to those facing challenges.

When a priest is ordained, he is told to conform his life to the mystery of the Lord’s cross, Bishop McManus noted, and said Bishop Reilly did that especially during his last months in the nursing home.  

Now, Bishop McManus said, we do for Bishop Reilly what he did for others – offer Mass for his eternal salvation. He said his prayer is that, when Bishop Reilly closed his eyes in death, he opened them on the other side to see the beautiful face of the Risen Christ, and heard, “Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joys of your Master.”