Russert Buried at Rock Creek Cemetery

It was quite a send off. A closed casket wake was held last Tuesday at St. Alban’s School, the exclusive boy’s high school located on the campus of the National Cathedral. A particularly touching scene was when President and Mrs. Bush held hands with Maureen Orth and Luke Russert in front of Tim’s Solid Mahogany casket and prayed together.

The funeral Mass was held Wednesday morning at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, among one of the places I predicted it would be held. Russert was then buried privately at Rock Creek Cemetery in the northwest quadrant of Washington, DC. Rock Creek Cemetery is a ministry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Simply put, it’s the DC cemetery where prominent people not eligible for burial at Arlington National Cemetery are buried. These links are for the cemetery and for a list of other notables buried there:

http://www.rockcreekparish.org/cemetery/

http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&previousJumpTo=&previousFameFilter=&FScemeteryid=104448&jumpTo=1&fameLevel=very

Later in the afternoon a memorial service was held at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The family basically held two funerals because they had goals that were mutually exclusive. They wanted a funeral Mass and Russert was a member of Holy Trinity Church. That church was not large enough to accommodate the number of people they wanted to include in the memorial service. The objective of the memorial service was to convene as many people as they wanted to have and to allow 10 eulogists to speak. Given the ever increasing tension in the Catholic church for eulogies it seemed impractical to accomodate all of their needs in one ceremony.
Some Catholic churches and or priests do not allow eulogies at all during a funeral Mass. This rises out of a tension between what Catholic liturgical terrorists believe the purpose of a funeral is. Liturgically, they do not believe that a function of the Mass of Christian Burial is to have it personalized around the life and personality of the person who died. Most people believe that the funeral is about the person who died and the comfort of those who grieve. There are times when eulogies are excessive, over-the-top, or more about the person giving the eulogy than about the person who died. These unfortunate incidents only add fuel to the fire of trashing eulogies by Catholic priests and liturgists.

In Russert’s case, if a Funeral Mass and the Memorial Service held later were combined into one ceremony, it would have lasted 2 and a half hours which would have been labourious. Unfortunately, because the religious ceremony was held separately, there was absolutely no symbol or inclusion of faith in any way at the Memorial Service. So much so that there wasn’t even an invocation ro benediction. I thought that was poor.

I was surprised that Russert was buried in Washington and not Buffalo, was also surprised that he was waked at his son’s high school. For an Irish Catholic to be waked at an Episcopal school and buried in an Episcopal cemetery seemed strange to me. However, he was a boomer and boomers chart their own course. The funeral, memorial, and burial all reflect how people today are making decisions that forge new customs and traditions.

The eulogists at the Memorial Service were incredible. Tom Brokaw kicked it off saying that it would be an Irish celebration: laughter, tears and the occasional truth. It was really a heartening event. Maria Shiver and Mario Cuomo were great.

Here are some memorable quotes:

From Tim’s 7th grade teacher who put made him editor fo the school newspaper to get him to stop spitting spit balls and, according to him, launched his career as a journalist...

I hear God talking to little Timmy Russert: You’re in heaven now, Tim, where every day is Meet The Press. Welcome Home. Sr Lucille Socciarelli, RSM

His role was to be the Citizen Journalist to speak for those with no voice, to hold public officials accountable, to fulfill the role that I have always thought as the highest calling of a citizen in this country–to be a patriot. –Tom Brokaw

My dad was a force of nature and now his own cycle in nature is now complete. But his spirit lives on in every body who loves their country, loves their family, loves their faith, and loves those Buffalo Bills. I love you, Dad, and in his words, let us all-GO GET ‘EM. --Luke Russert