More Than 1,000 Join Cardinal Egan for Funeral of Msgr. Boyle

More than 1,100 people filled Rye’s Church of the Resurrection Saturday for the funeral Mass for Msgr. Patrick J. Boyle, 70, who died Wednesday after a two-year battle with cancer.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan was the celebrant in the Mass presided over by Cardinal Edward Egan with 63 priests in attendance on the main altar–64 if you included Msgr. Boyle (and he would have wanted to be included) who lay in a closed casket at the front of the main chapel.

The program’s cover gave Rev. Boyle’s essentials: Born: March 16, 1940, ordained a priest May 29, 1965. “Entered Eternal Life: Feb.16. 2011.”

The program headline said: “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek,” quoting from Hebrews 7:17.

But it was the homily and what family, friends and parishioners said after the Mass that fleshed out the man who was a priest for 45 years, the last eight at Resurrection, a monsignor whose Irish immigrant parents ran a saloon in New York's inner city.

“Pat gave his life to Christ, he was the face of Christ, he was always a priest, always a presence, always present,” said the homilist, Rev.  David Nolan, who served under Msgr.  Boyle when he was a young priest at St. Brendan’s in the Bronx when he was fresh out of the seminary. “He did what every parish priest is trained to do–speak and spread the word of Christ.

“He made of himself a tireless gift to every parish he ever served in, from his first, St. Stephen’s, in Manhattan, to Holy Rosary, St Brendan’s in the Bronx to Resurrection in Rye,” said Rev. Nolan.

Nolan focused on Msgr. Boyle’s time at St. Brendan’s because that’s where he knew “Father Pat” and “The Love and Life of Pat.”

“He was  ‘Mr. Bronx,’ everybody knew him because he was tireless as a pastor at St. Brendan’s, he was at every baptism, every Holy Communion celebration, every wedding, every funeral; he was always late for dinner at the rectory because every day, and I mean every day, he made his rounds at Montefiore Hospital, visited every sick member of his parish, he knew them all and he knew all there was to know about them,” said Rev. Nolan.

Rev. Nolan had the somber audience laughing with several of his anecdotes. “I remember once he came home to the rectory late from a wedding, and we asked him what happened,” Rev. Nolan recalled.

It seems Father Pat knew the wedding was in New Rochelle, but lost the name of the reception hall. So he proceeded methodically up the Sound Shore, stopping at several country clubs and reception halls along the way, according to Rev. Nolan.

And at every one of those receptions, he knew so many people and shook so many hands, he thought he was in the right place until he walked up to bless the bride and groom and realized he didn’t know them.

So he exited and kept on going until he found the right wedding party at the seventh reception hall he stopped at. “He was so busy talking to people he never had a chance to eat, and we sent out for a pizza when he got home,” said Rev. Nolan. "Parties,  Father Pat loved parties. We broke a lot of bread at St. Brendan’s.”

Msgr. Boyle did a lot more than break bread. He also broke ground for a new school and gymnasium at St. Brendan’s and raised a lot of money not only for his parish but for Catholic Charities where he also worked for several years and helped renovate a lot of old buildings during the days when he was at the forefront of the city’s urban renewal projects.

Quietly, methodically, in his down-to-earth way, he came to Resurrection as pastor eight years ago and helped raise $6.5 million dollars to renovate the aging church, repair the roof, replace the stained glass windows and repaint the edifice’s interior as well as make numerous improvements to the parish school.

“During the last two years he bore the cross of cancer, but he never complained right up until the end, he never complained,” said Rev. Nolan. "That was Father Pat, never a complainer, always a doer. And a forgiver. He always thought the 'Doubting Thomas" of the Bible got a raw deal. He was all about forgiveness and compassion."

The Mass lasted for more than an hour, from the introductory funeral rites for a priest (“In the waters of baptism, Father Boyle died with Christ and rose with him to new life. May he now share with him in eternal glory,” said Archbishop Dolan) to the closing “Song of Farewell”  (“I know that my Redeemer lives, and the last day I shall rise again. Receive his soul, O holy ones; present him now to God, Most High”).

In between, there was lots of incense, the splashing of Holy Water,  scepters waving, priest's hands crossing in blessings, songs and choral arrangements featuring soloist Darryl Krokel, soaring organ solos by Jim Donaldson and various hymns sung by a volunteer choir (“The King of Love,” “ O God, Our Help in Ages Past,” “The Lord’s Prayer,” “Praise My Soul, the King of Heaven”  “Salve Regina” with the priests singing in Latin, “Sing With All the Saints in Glory” and “For All the Saints”).

Father Pat’s brothers, James and Michael, and his cousin, Bridget, sat in the front row of the church, and led the parish up to Holy Communion, the procession including Msgr. Boyle’s nieces and cousins, including namesake Patrick Boyle and his sister, Ann.

The Communion procession included more than 750 people, some sobbing, some cradling babes in arms, some in nun's garb, some in the height of fashion and some bundled up against the cold outside. There were those hobbling on crutches and canes, some walking with the spring of youth in their steps, especially those who were coming of age under Father Pat as students at the Resurrection School, and some who knew Msgr. Boyle from the cradle to the grave, remembering Father Pat baptizing or marrying them or counseling them or burying their spouses.

Before the final recessional hymn, Archbishop Dolan gave the closing comments:
“I didn’t know Father Pat well because I was still new to the Archdiocese when I first came to visit him and give him the Sacrament of Healing for the first time around the time of the outset of his cancer two years ago,” he said. “When I returned to the rectory, I told Cardinal Egan, Msgr. Boyle didn’t sound too well, his voice was froggy, throaty, hard to understand. Cardinal Egan said: ‘Don’t worry, he’s been talking that way for 50 years now.’”)

The grieving parishioners exploded with laughter, then turned somber again when Archbishop Dolan said:

“When it looked as though Msgr. Boyle was in his last days, I called and asked him again if I could visit and give him the Sacrament of Healing. He said yes, but wanted to ask several favors: first that I give him the Sacrament at Mass, second that it be at a children’s Mass for all his children from Resurrection School, third that the blessing be given in front of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, and fourth, that the Sacrament be given first to one of his parishioners, who he felt deserved to receive the Sacrament before he did because she needed it more badly than he did. And he knew he was dying. He was the perfect priest and pastor right up until the very end.”

He paused and then said: “He was an inspiration to all of us at the Archdiocese as he was and is to the wonderful people in his parish at Resurrection. Even when he could no longer minister to you, you supported him, you loved him, you prayed for him, you reached out to help him. He was your spiritual and earthly father. And you loved him. And he loved you.”

With that, the Mass ended.

Before the funeral cortege left for Msgr. Boyle’s burial at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Valhalla, Patch spoke to several members of Father Pat’s family, friends and parishioners as the traffic ebbed and flowed out of Resurrection's parking lot and the nearby parking lots of Rye's Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church.

“It was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful brother, man and priest,” said Msgr. Boyle's brother, James. “He could never say no to anybody, he worked for his parish around the clock, he always wanted to be a priest, he was saying Mass at a makeshift altar in our apartment from the time he was seven or eight years old,” he recalled.

“He had a mind of his own,” recalled Michael, Father Pat’s older brother, remembering the Monsignor getting so angry at the technology behind a Kindle that he bought for him that he threw it down on the ground and stomped on it. Bridget recalled “Pat” always being the life of the party, but behind that joy for living was the sadness of all he knew about the trials and tribulations of so many of his parishioners.

Shawn Diaz, a Resurrection parishioner, was among those weeping for Father Pat. “I come from a mixed marriage, Catholic, non-Catholic, and I asked Father Pat if he could still baptize our first born in the church. ‘Why not, who am I to judge, I’m not the CIA, as long as you are willing to raise him in the Catholic Church,’” she remembered him saying. “That’s how he was, down to earth filled with love and common sense.”

“He was a priest’s priest, filled with love and dedication and he was always there for you; he said the funeral Mass when we buried my husband, Terry,” said Barbara O’Neill, a Resurrection parishioner for more than 35 years as well as a Dame of Malta and Daughter of the Holy Sepulcher.

“He was my father, my earthly and spiritual father, he baptized me, he baptized my daughter, he baptized my sister, he was part of our family for more than a quarter-of-a-century,” said a sobbing Kimoy Lee Foon, who stood next to the limo waiting to take Msgr. Boyle away to Valhalla with a Rye PD police escort. As she spoke, she was hugging her mother Bernadette, and her sister, Raven. “He was just what Father Dolan said: ‘Always a priest, always present, always a presence,’” she said.

“I would have to echo Father Dolan as well,” said Rev. Daniel O’Reilly, a Rye product, a Princeton graduate, and a popular parish priest who trained under Msgr. Boyle at Resurrection when he too was fresh out of the seminary.

 “He was the perfect pastor to learn under,” said Rev. O’Reilly who, in effect, served as Master of Ceremonies during the Mass, although he described his role differently.” I was basically a big altar boy who kept the Mass ritual moving,” he said, albeit the ritual included an altar filled with a cardinal, an archbishop, a bishop, eight surviving members of Msgr. Boyle’s seminary “Class of ’65" at Dunwoodie (including Resurrection’s acting pastor, Msgr. Edward O’Donnell), various monsignors and around 60 senior priests.

Rev. O’Reilly was also, in effect, presiding over the “breaking of the bread”  during a parish reception in the church basement following the Mass in a room filled with sandwiches, fruit, pastry, coffee, tea. sadness, good will and lots of reminiscences about Father Pat.

 "He was the quintessential people person," said Msgr. O'Donnell, the acting Resurrection pastor. "He was almost overwhelming, he was such a  people person with an impact on so many lives and families, sometimes going back two and three generations."

As Rev. Reilly and, later, Msgr. O'Donnell, spoke, one of the Resurrection youngsters, Pat Rogers, 13, stood nearby.

“Father Pat would have liked this,” said young Pat Rogers. “It is a happy time."

Not like last night, he said, referring to a Friday night Mass of the Holy Eucharist in the church where Msgr. Boyle lay in state in an open casket. “I kept looking from all the happy pictures of Msgr. Boyle to Msgr. Boyle in the casket. That wasn’t the Msgr. Boyle I knew in the casket. This is the Msgr. Boyle I knew. He would have been happy to see this happening, this breaking of the bread. You know what I am going to remember about him. The time he forgot the new words to the Catholic liturgy because he misplaced his cue card so he improvised by saying: 'Christ is here, Christ is there, Christ is everywhere.' He believed those words. And he lived them."

And more than one parishioner toasted Msgr. Boyle with the traditional Irish blessing: “May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back; May the sunshine warm your face, the rain fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his Hand.”

And more than one wound up with the quote from John 11: “I am the Resurrection and the life…Whoever believes in me…Will never die.”