Religion and a True Hero

I enjoy singing and belong to an ad hoc choir called Seraphim. We practice every Monday night and offer three public performances each year. The origin of the choir appears to have been rooted in a local Methodist church, and was then supplemented with current and former members of the Youngstown Symphony Chorus. This past year, it hired a new director, who brought in several new members who sang under him at the various churches where he served as choirmaster. The result is a group of people of various ethnic backgrounds and religious beliefs sharing in their love of music of all types.

Kris, our Seraphim director, currently is Chairman of Music at Mary, Mother of Hope Catholic Church in New Castle, Pa. This is a big, old fashioned, Gothic Catholic Church with a brand new paid for pipe organ worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a magnificent place to sing with unbelievable acoustics. Seraphim performed its Christmas program at the church. Sadly, Christmas was marred for the members of the church and all of New Castle. One of New Castle's bravest and finest, Marine Corporal Albert Pasquale Gettings, was killed in Iraq. Only 22 years old, he volunteered for his tour of duty in Iraq. He was due to be discharged in June. Mary, Mother of Hope was the place of his wedding just last May. He was shot by a sniper leading his squad through Fallujah. After being shot, Gettings fired back killing the sniper, thus saving many men in his squad from injury or death. Surgeons couldn't save Corporal Gettings life. He was the genuine article, a real hero.

Kris asked if Seraphim would sing at the Funeral Mass on Saturday along with the Mary, Mother of Hope choir. In spite of horrible weather conditions, everyone showed up. In this modern age of technological, far away wars, we don't get the opportunity to repay those who risk their lives for our freedom, no matter how insignificant our effort's might be compared to those in harm's way. There is no home sacrifice.

The funeral was a full military affair. The church was packed. The Mass was impressive with four priests and umteen altar servers. Two solo cantors raised their voices in song. The choral and service music was moving. It was Catholicism at its best.

But what impressed me the most was when it came time to share the peace, I watched 40 -50 some choir members, all of various faiths, and perhaps some with no faith at all, shake hands with each other in recognition of the sacrifice this young man made allowing us our religious diversity. It didn't matter whether we were Lutheran or Methodist or Episcopalian or Catholic or Jewish. We were humbled in a holy place, celebrating our shared values of peace and tolerance in difficult circumstances.

My assistant pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Youngstown once told me at an ecumenical celebration several years ago that the laity was well ahead of the clergy in placing the commonalities of our diverse faiths ahead of the differences. If that is the case, I say AMEN to the laity. That type of attitude is even more important when viewed against the religious fanaticism that helped feed the difficulties leading to the current War on Terror. May God bless Corporal Gettings, and all others who fight to save our freedoms.