Pat Mudd's Funeral in Kentucky
2 April 2005
Pat Mudd, or CP Mudd as he was later known, was a classmate of mine through twelve years at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville and St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore. Then we were colleagues in Louisville after ordination. Eventually Pat left the active priesthood and married a friend of mine, Bernadette Smallwood. In recent years he has been in ill health because of heart disease. When I was in Kentucky last summer, we met and Pat told me his condition was worse and precarious, and he asked if I would preside at his funeral.
On Saturday, 19 March, Pat died and a memorial service was arranged for Saturday, 2 April, at which Fr. Bill Martin and I presided. I left Phnom Penh on Thursday night, 31 March, for the trip to Louisville, and returned the morning of Thursday, 7 April.
Check here for an account of the trip.
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Travel: Phnom Penh to Bangkok |
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Before he died, Pat Mudd planned his memorial service with his wife Bernadette. They planned it well, and the service this evening at St. Rita Church was engaging and life-giving with its different elements and with Pat's music throughout the ceremony. Here Charlie Dittmeier has a chance to catch up with Bernadette at the reception after the ceremony in church.
The former students and faculty of St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville have a mailing list on the Internet for communicating with each other, and through the list I was able to arrange to preside at two masses at Ss. Simon and Jude Church in Louisville where I was associate pastor before joining Maryknoll in 1987. After mass on Sunday I took some photos of the candles and other furniture in the sanctuary as reference ideas for use with the Catholic community in Phnom Penh.
The Dittmeier family used my coming to Louisville as a reason for a family gathering, and we all went to our sister Mary's house Sunday afternoon. Two of the family were celebrating birthdays that week so it was an especially happy occasion.
Monday was a day for doing a lot of different things: catching up on e-mail since I left Cambodia; going to the bank; visiting my mother; and visiting Dan Onley, a seminary classmate who has moved to Louisville. Here Dan poses in front of the house he has just acquired.