In Exsequiis Cardinalium Defunctorum: Requiem for a Mighty Cardinal of Our Epoch

Paul Augustine Cardinal Mayer, O.S.B. (1911-2010); Peritus at the Vatican Council.

Today in the Vatican Basilica during his Vatican City Gregorian Requiem I carried your prayers for the repose of the soul of this hero of the twentieth century.

The Holy Father was filled with emotion during the Ultima Commendatio et Valedictio for his friend and fellow Baverian.

The truth is that this saint was not grouchy like many cardinals, but always had a smile.  So tall, in his greca and beret, walking across St. Peter's Square.  Always so nice.  Always reminded me of my grandfather who was also born in 1911.  They both had survived the twentieth century: the menace of Nazism and so much more.  His espousal was with the Church and he was faithful to the end.

He loved the full liturgical patrimony of the Latin Church and sought to bestir it in the heart of that same Church while others took an intransigent position. 

While he stood strong many sneered at his efforts with the ascending movement which led to 2007's Summorum Pontificum.  He heard the "sitio" of the faithful and was a true pastor.

 He saw the gift of the Usus Antiquior for the universal Church as something which had already been given once and for all (cf. Rom. 11.29: "God does not repent of the gifts He makes").  He believed in the Liturgy as living in the world and being a highway for the sanctification of the Church universal. 

His wisdom was as golden ingots.  His orative talents were an inspiration.  He was a monk and a professor.  He taught that what we do to sanctify ourselves sanctifies the world.  Liturgical expression matters.

Pray for the Lord to send us many more like him: out of the hundreds of possible ways of fostering vocations it was "prayer" that was the single one Our Blessed Lord offered (cf. Luke 10.2: "The harvest, He told them, is plentiful enough, but the laborers are few; you must ask the Lord to Whom the harvest belongs to send laborers out for the harvesting").

Our Lady of Altötting, pray for us!

And in 1990 he ordained the famous Fr. Z a transitional deacon in Rome.  Of course we all would have liked very much to have been there on that special day.  I was just a kid in primary school.  But we were all there in spirit.