The following is the text of the eulogy given by Msgr. Patrick J. O’Connor, pastor of St. Thomas More Church, in Christ the King Cathedral on the occasion of the Solemn Requiem mass of the late President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on Monday night.

“He lost his life, ’tis true, but long, long before he had given his life to his God, his country, to his fellowmen”…

Rt. Rev. Father Abbot, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Cassidy, Rt. Rev. Msgr., Very Rev. and Rev. Fathers, distinguished representatives of state and city, beloved sisters, beloved friends in Christ.

When the news of the assassination of our president was announced to the world there is no doubt that a prayer rose up immediately from the lips of countless men, a prayer for the repose of his soul. These prayers arose from the lips of stunned citizens who immediately sensed a severe loss. The nation was drenched in sorrow. Partisan feelings were for once forgotten and we all became plain citizens benumbed by a message and a grief. In our frail human way we asked the inevitable question, why? Why, as it seems to us, why, this untimely passing?

Our Christian teaching immediately comes to our rescue and we say, “Thy will Be Done.”

Dear friends, just as individuals created by God have an obligation of rendering public honor and worship, such a time has come and we do, as citizens of this nation on ‘this darkest evening of the year.’

Dear friends, it is most fitting that we gather here in the Cathedral church of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and with our many friends of other religious persuasions, join as brothers in Christ and pray for John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our respected president of these United States, who was called by God to his eternal reward.

Dearly beloved, Jesus Christ is God. God can do nothing that is purposeless. All that he did as he walked the earth was for a purpose, namely, to effect the lives of men. His words, his deeds, his example had no meaning other than to serve as a model for our lives as they are lived in this “vale of tears.” The death of Christ, the death of any man of high or low estate, is meaningful. Death is a great teacher. It drives from our minds three great illusions. Men promise themselves a long life and yet no one denies the certainly of death. But in reality, we make out for ourselves a sort of everlasting existence on this earth. We do not believe that we shall die today, this week, this month, this year. We all believe the uncertainly of life and yet we act as though it were not so! Death takes away this illusion and forcibly teaches us that at any moment our lives may come to an end.

Death destroys, too, the illusion that the goods of this world are of great importance when in reality we know that “all is vanity.” I Timothy, “We brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out.”

Death is a great teacher. Man believes himself to be something great and yet we know that “all men are earth and ashes.” Eccl XVII. 31.

To the real Christian, the hour, the place, the circumstance are not as significant as the condition of one’s soul at the moment of death.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, is dead.

His shadow will fall upon your life and mine, your world and mine; his shadow will upon fall the lives of the yet unborn for ages to come.

The image of this man formed during a short span of years in the minds of men is now concluding by his passing. Thus he stands for all to see.

We see A “Man of belief” in God.

We see a Man of courage; courageous in battle; courageous in illness; courageous in the turmoil of political life.

We see a man who knew suffering. We see a man of integrity. We see a man of great intellectual capacity and attainment. We see a man concerned with the frailties of mind, a body suffered by his fellow man, not the least of these are the retarded children of the nation. We see a man born to great wealth and yet constantly thoughtful of the poor, the needy the deprived of the world. We see a man so convinced of the dignity of man that again and again he showed his willingness to stake his political future with all its implications on the stand he took on the real issues of the day.

“Blessed are they who thirst after justice for they shall be satisfied!”

Firm was he in his belief that the equality and dignity of all men is basically a religious concept and a commandment of daily living else it has no worthiness save political expediency. We see a man of great intolerance with his fellows only when confronted by fellow men governed by selfish motives.

WE SEE A man of great impatience only when community leaders would refuse to sit down and discuss with open minds the injustices heaped upon American citizens and citizens of other nations in the world. We see a man, a respecter of law and order and justice. Such is the image of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.” (Hamlet to Horatio)

For us as Catholics this is a particularly poignant moment in our lives and in the life of this nation we love so dearly. This young president was closer to each of us that we realize. He was a member of our faith, a participant in our Mass, a receiver as we are of the sacraments of our Church. We were understandably proud in his accession to the highest elective office in our land. The election of this young man to presidency of the United States marked the ascendancy to this position of the first Catholic in the history of our nation. It is comforting for us to note that this could not have happened without the support of our non-Catholic American citizens. We are well aware of this cooperation and for it we are deeply grateful. The election of President Kennedy was of tremendous significance because it marked for all to see the abandonment of religious bigotry in this our beloved country. We are proud, and unjustifiably so, because his election and tenure of office proved to all the world that an American Catholic can be loyal to his faith and also to his constitutional duties.

From the heavy hearts of citizens of a grateful nation go words of condolence to a bereaved family, to a devoted wife, to loving parents. His passing will mark heavily the lives of his children. His parents felt the yoke of great sorrow in another day when their oldest son died in the service of this nation.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35^th president of the United States, is dead. May God be merciful to his soul.

“He lost his life, ‘tis true, but long, long before he had given his life to his God his country, to his fellowmen.”