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May 9, 2024Archbishop Coakley squinted a bit, studying the typewritten homily that also featured various handwritten notes, tweaks to provide better phrases or additions or simply offering corrections.
“This is pretty neat,” the archbishop said, a smile creasing his face.
Pretty neat, indeed.
Pulled from a basic manilla folder, Coakley took in the treasure discovered in the archive room at the Catholic Pastoral Center: the sermon from the funeral Mass of Blessed Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, delivered Dec. 27, 1917, in Chicago.
Neater yet, the homily was delivered by Reverend Frances Clement Kelley, then considered one of the true giants of the 20th century church in America, later the second bishop of the Diocese of Oklahoma.
As the recent film “Cabrini” plays across the U.S. – in theaters and soon streaming – drawing strong critical reviews and strong praise from Catholic faith leaders, Bishop Kelley’s place at the forefront of the funeral of the first U.S. citizen canonized as a saint provides a reminder of Kelley’s stature.
“He was a towering figure, not just in Oklahoma but nationally,” Coakley said. “One of the internationally recognized and renowned Catholic churchmen in the early part of the 20th century and mid-century.”
Kelley was a fitting priest to deliver the funeral homily.
While Cabrini worked to create missionary institutions for the sick and the poor, Kelley was instrumental in leading efforts to support the poor parishes of rural America, ultimately factoring into his assignment to Oklahoma.
“They would have been contemporaries,” Coakley said.
Kelley’s sermon fully celebrated Cabrini, who along with her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, established 67 missionary institutions – schools, academies, orphanages and hospitals – in the U.S. and throughout Latin America and Europe.
“It would have been an honor for him,” Coakley said.
That honor was evident immediately, from the very opening of Kelley’s homily.
“To the eye unopened to the higher vision by the touch of the hand of the Master, there are here present only mourners over all that is mortal of a woman, who, in her lifetime, occupied a position of authority and power, ruling over thousands of beloved daughters and institutions of charity in two hemispheres.
“If all lives are but dramas ending at death, there is nothing here but tragedy; for to the world loss of power is even more terrible than loss of life; and here is loss of power as well as life. But to the true believer Mother Cabrini is at the summit of a high mountain, a long wearisome climb ended, surrounded by a new light reflected from the face of the Master she served so well and faithfully.”
John Helsley is editor of the Sooner Catholic.
Photo Angel Studios.
Bishop Kelley’s full homily can be found at archokc.org/photoalbums/saint-frances-xavier-cabrini-homily
