Crypt church vigil marks full circle for cardinal's life of service

Published: 2004-11-02

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Nearly six decades earlier, the quiet, scholarly seminarian from Michigan had been ordained a deacon in the crypt church of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, beginning a life of service to the church that would lead him to the nation's capital in 1980 as an archbishop and then a cardinal. On Oct. 29, the casket of Cardinal James A. Hickey, retired archbishop of Washington, lay in state before that same altar in the crypt church, as mourners prayed before it throughout the day. Then 20 bishops and cardinals, nearly 100 priests and a crowd of 700 other people that included deacons, seminarians, religious and lay people of all ages and from different ethnic and racial backgrounds gathered for a vigil Mass to honor the cardinal at the place where his life as an ordained clergyman had begun.

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