Our pastor and I were kindly invited to attend the Funeral Mass in honor of the former Roman Catholic Bishop of Albany and the past executive director of Catholic Relief Services, Bishop Edwin Broderick.

I very much appreciated that Fr. Mike Farano, Pastor of St. Pius X, invited us.

As best as I can tell from our parish history, Bishop Broderick was particularly kind to our Church from an ecumenical perspective —“ long before there was any official dialog between the Roman Catholic and PNC Churches.

I was surprised by the fact that there weren’t more ecumenical guests. It was us and Bishops Daniel Herzog and David Ball from the Episcopal Diocese of Albany (not for long) along with the Very Rev. Marshall Vang, Dean of the Cathedral parish.

We attended in choir dress (cassock, surplice, stole) as did the Episcopal contingent (although Bishop Herzog had a kind of a long red garment on —“ being unfamiliar with Episcopal Church vestiture I’m not sure what it was).

I want to mention my thanks to the Rev. David Mickiewicz who acted as Mater of Ceremonies and took us under his wing, and the Rev. James Kane, Director of the Albany R.C. Diocesan Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, for their kindness.

There were six or seven R.C. Bishops and Archbishops in attendance. The Funeral Mass was presided over by the Current Bishop of Albany, Howard Hubbard.

Not much surprised me during the Mass but there were three things that stood out.

They are still using glass pitchers on the altar to hold the precious blood. I thought that had been stopped and was a no no.

The other thing that stood out was the way people received the Eucharist. Even with all the bowing while walking up it was even less reverent than I remember it. The topper was one elderly nun who walked up with a cane. Because of her condition, not being able to receive in one hand while placing the Eucharist in her mouth with the other hand, I figured she would receive on the tongue. Nope, she received in the right hand and popped Jesus into her mouth like a tic-tac. I almost fell over.

The last thing that really amazed me was when they brought the Bishop’s body out of the church. The assembled clergy spontaneously sang Salve Regina IN LATIN. I joined right in.

Eternal rest grant unto him o Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.