A fitting farewell

     Despite severe storms and torrential downpours locally on Wednesday morning, the Church of Greensburg gathered to bid farewell to our third bishop, Bishop Anthony G. Bosco, at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.  The funeral liturgy that began at 10:00 am that morning saw family and friends, bishops, priests, religious and laity gather to pray for this shepherd who served the Church for over sixty one years as a priest, forty three years as a bishop, and seventeen of those years as the Shepherd of Greensburg.  In all of those years he touched peoples lives and brought blessings, he made decisions that upset and angered people, he was kind and gentle, difficult and harsh in decisions and dealing with people, he did good things and made mistakes, but he was a shepherd.  As I said in an earlier post, I did not always agree with him, but I learned to respect him.  The processional hymn at his funeral is the beautiful hymn "Heart of a Shepherd" by Rory Conney.  It set the stage for the celebration.

      Archbishop Charles Chaput was the celebrant, joined by ten other bishops and Archabbot Douglas Nowicki of Saint Vincent, many priests of the diocese and archabbey and beyond, in a wonderful celebration of Faith and Eucharist.  The music was inspiring, the setting beautiful, the sadness and joy very evident.
Former staff of the pastoral center joined with present staff to renew old friendships and remember former days.

     I was blessed to be a part of this prayer for a shepherd.  God bless you, Bishop Anthony G. Bosco.  May you rest in peace.