By Joe Pisani
TRUMBULL — Fr. Brian Gannon told several hundred people who came to celebrate All Souls Day at Gate of Heaven Cemetery that “Despite the newspaper headlines and the enormous amount of evil in the world today, Christ has triumphed and our hope is infinite and our hope is indomitable.”
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed was celebrated at six Catholic cemeteries throughout the Diocese of Bridgeport on Thursday.
Also see: All Souls Day @ St. Mary-Putnam (Greenwich w/ Bishop Caggiano), Gate of Heaven (Trumbull), St. Michael (Stratford), St. John (Norwalk) and St. Peter (Danbury)
Fr. Gannon, pastor of St. Theresa Church in Trumbull, said, “Today we reunite ourselves with our loved ones who have gone before us, and we pray for them — as the prayers of the funeral Mass say — so they can be freed from their sins.”
Father, who was assisted by Deacon Jerry Lambert, compared the tent on the cemetery grounds to the musty and cold Roman catacombs. Recalling his years studying in Rome, he recounted how he would go outside the city on All Souls Day to the massive Campo Verano Cemetery, founded in the 19th century.
“Hordes and hordes of Italians would be waiting at the massive gate for it to open at 7 a.m. so they could go to the graves of their loved ones and pray,” he recalled. “It was very poignant and moving, and it was absolutely part of what love is truly all about. Love is being in union with Almighty God on a deeper and deeper level, so the more that we pray for one another on Earth and the more that we pray for our deceased ones, the more we are following the path of Our Lord and Savior through his suffering, death and resurrection.”
The wonderful reality is that Jesus “conquered death through his own massive suffering and his glorious resurrection, he said.
“So we are reminded of the triumph of Jesus Christ and the beauty of being able to come here like the ancient Christians, who would go to the catacombs, and we know through the holy Bible that the Maccabees prayed for the dead so their souls would be released from their sins. Praying for the dead is historically biblical and not just cultural, and it is a beautiful part of our faith.”
Father Gannon said that “God gave those of us on Earth extraordinary power that we can participate in the release of our loved ones into the glory of Heaven. Every act of love, every act of sacrifice that we perform each and every day brings us closer and closer to Jesus. So when we face difficulty and disappointment and — Heaven forbid — tragedy, Our Lord is always there. He is the only one who can make sense out of suffering, and he’s the only one who can make sense out of death.”
He urged the people at Mass to pray for peace in the world and that everyone would come to know the glory of Jesus Christ. He also encouraged them to look around the cemetery to the graves of their deceased loved ones and remember that “because of Our Lord in the tomb, the grave becomes a sign of hope. It is not a sign of despair, it is a sign of hope that we rise from the dead.”
After Mass, Father Gannon and Deacon Lambert greeted the faithful as they left. Father said that although we live in troubled times, “The only thing that makes sense is to give yourself entirely to Jesus Christ. The more we grow in gratitude, the better our relationship will be. We must also pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I also tell young families to teach their children how to pray.”
Sister Fabiana of the Missionaries of Charity came with several of her fellow sisters from Bridgeport, including Sister Margherita, who had previously been at their order’s house in Gaza.
The group came to attend the Mass with a friend whose wife had died.
“It’s very important to support each other and be together,” Sister Fabiana said.
Linda Marini of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Trumbull said, “I am here to acknowledge all the faithful departed in my family and around the world.”
Enza Lombardi of Notre Dame Parish in Easton, said she comes to the Mass every year to pray for the faithful departed and for her family members, especially her husband Ralph, who passed away almost four years ago.
Photos by Joe Pisani
Ed Tamimi, a family advisor at Gate of Heaven Cemetery for seven years, left a career in finance to work with Catholic Cemeteries. A member of St. Lawrence Parish in Huntington, he said: “It takes a special person to do this work. I’ve been on the other side, and this is my way of giving back. You meet people on the worst days of their life, when someone has died, and you try to help them, and when they say, ‘thank you,’ it’s priceless.”
Cemeteries administrator Monica Stebbins said that All Souls Day is very special to Catholic Cemeteries because “It gives us a chance to pray for the souls we have lost. I just feel very at peace, and I’m truly blessed to be part of this.”
Mary Wolpiuk, whose in-laws are buried at Gate of Heaven, said, “I feel like I have a ministry praying for the dead, and I have a long list of those who died from illicit drugs or suicide that I pray for.”
Patricia Hayes, a former teacher at St. Joseph High School and parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena, came to the Mass with her sister Christine Zarrilli of St. Cecilia in Stamford. “We love this Mass,” Patricia said. “It’s very comforting, and we try to come every year because our parents are buried here.”
