Community celebrates McCormick at memorial Mass
JASON McFARLEY
News Writer
Family, friends and community members filled the Basilica of the Sacred Heart to half its capacity as they gathered to celebrate the life and achievements of the late Father Richard McCormick at a memorial Mass held Tuesday. McCormick, a professor emeritus of Christian ethics, was a world-renowned moral theologian who specialized in biomedical ethics. He had been a member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1986.
A Toledo, Ohio native, McCormick died of natural causes on Feb. 12 in Clarkston, Mich. He was 77 years old.
Father Theodore Hesburgh, University president emeritus, said that McCormick would have been thankful for those who attended the memorial services.
"[McCormick] was a wonderful friend and colleague. He was open to all ideas, all friendships, open to everyone," said Hesburgh, who presided over the Mass.
The event drew many who knew McCormick, including his three sisters and other extended family members. Friends, colleagues and people from throughout the area were also in attendance.
Father Richard McBrien, a fellow theology professor, delivered the homily. He called McCormick an integral part of not only his immediate family but also of the Notre Dame community and the Society of Jesus to which he had belonged since 1940.
McBrien recalled some of McCormick's contributions to the public. McCormick was the recipient of many academic honors, was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, McBrien said. McCormick was also a published author and made regular appearances on television news programs.
"Many benefited from his wisdom and counsel," McBrien said. "Now that he has left this earth, his renown will not cease."
Both McBrien and Hesburgh remembered McCormick as a courageous man. Last June, when McCormick first fell ill, he was determined to return to his work at Notre Dame, according to McBrien.
"He never lost hope that he would return to Notre Dame, if even for one more football weekend," McBrien said.
Although the memorial Mass was an occasion to pay tribute, McBrien said Tuesday's services were intended to call attention to a life of accomplishments, not death. The bonds of friendship and love that McCormick stood for are not broken by his passing, McBrien said.
"Father McCormick's presence on this campus and in this world was a very great blessing to so many," Hesburgh said.
McCormick graduated from Chicago's Loyola University in 1945 and obtained a master's degree from that institution five years later. In 1953, McCormick was ordained into the priesthood, and in 1957, he obtained his doctoral degree in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome.
He was a professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of theology in Chicago from 1957 to 1973. For the 13 years prior to his joining the Notre Dame faculty, McCormick was a professor of Christian ethics at Georgetown University.
All News Stories for Wednesday, March 8, 2000
