Late priest's pioneering ecumenical efforts recalled at memorial Mass

Published: 2007-09-24

WORCESTER, Mass. (CNS) -- The late Assumptionist Father George Tavard, a noted ecumenist, was remembered as "an ecumenical saint" and "one of the great pioneers in Catholic ecumenical work" at a memorial Mass celebrated in the chapel at Assumption College in Worcester. Tributes at the Sept. 16 Mass came from church leaders near and far, including ecumenical representatives and his brother Assumptionists. The French-born Father Tavard, 86, died Aug. 13 at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris shortly before he was to board a flight to Boston. He had been vacationing in France with family members. He had lived at his order's residence in the Boston suburb of Brighton for the past 15 years. He was buried at the Assumptionist plot in the Paris Montparnasse Cemetery following a funeral Mass Aug. 21 at St. Dominic Church in Paris. Father Tavard had served in many important ecumenical roles during his 60 years as a priest. In Worcester, Father Dennis Gallagher, the Assumptionists' U.S. regional superior, said in his homily that Father Tavard could pursue truth and enter the mind and heart of the other instead of seeking his own benefit.

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