Manning Laid to Rest in a Simple Grave for Priests as He Asked

Spurning the ornate marble mausoleum where the remains of his predecessor bishops lie, Cardinal Timothy Manning, who headed the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles for 15 years until his 1985 retirement, was buried Thursday afternoon in a simple grave alongside his fellow priests.

The cardinal, who died of lung cancer Friday at the age of 79, specifically asked to be laid to rest in the section of Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles reserved for priests. Manning’s request was in keeping with his self-effacing style of leadership in what became the nation’s most populous diocese, and it exemplified his concern for the poor and humble.

At the graveside, several hundred mourners, including many Latinos, broke into soft, impromptu singing in Spanish. Archbishop Roger M. Mahony, who succeeded Manning in 1985, prayed that “while we commit to the earth the body of your servant, Timothy, his soul may be taken into Paradise.”

The 10-minute cemetery service contrasted sharply with the pomp and ceremony of the two-hour Mass of Christian Burial held earlier in the day in St. Vibiana Cathedral. It was attended by an overflow crowd estimated at 1,400 people.

Manning’s closed casket, draped with white linen bearing the cardinal’s personal coat of arms, was set before the altar, which was decked with banks of white and yellow chrysanthemums and gladioli. Manning’s red biretta--given to him by Pope Paul VI when he was named a cardinal in 1973--was placed on the left side of the coffin. His wooden shepherd’s staff, or crosier, lay on the right, and an open Bible topped the casket.

A 20-minute procession down the center aisle included Roman Catholic cardinals from New York, Chicago, Detroit, Washington and Philadelphia; 37 bishops and archbishops; 485 priests, and numerous Southland civic leaders, including five-term County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn and his son, City Atty. James K. Hahn. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, seated on the aisle, nodded to or greeted most of those in the passing entourage.

Compared to Father Serra

In his half-hour homily, Mahony compared Manning with Father Junipero Serra, founder of the Catholic missions in California, and noted that both men were immigrants--Serra from Mallorca, and Manning from Ireland.

“I would dare predict that we will never again witness in one person the rare graces and talents which these two men lived out so fully,” Mahony said, adding that Manning was “the most renowned preacher of the West.”

Manning’s “unbounded love and enthusiasm for Christ,” Mahony said, characterized “his shepherding the flock of Los Angeles from the early 1930s when this city was a minor community, through those decades of tremendous growth and expansion until we are now the second-largest city in the country--and still growing.”

When Manning succeeded Cardinal James Francis McIntyre in 1970, the archdiocese included 1.5 million Catholics in four counties. When Manning retired, it had been divided to create the Diocese of Orange. But the three counties remaining within its bounds--Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara--contained about 2.5 million Catholics. The number has now swelled to more than 3 million, boosted by a large influx of immigrants from Mexico, Asia and Central America.

Record Noted

Mahony noted that Manning had celebrated Mass on every altar in the archdiocese, named most of its parishes, and confirmed about 650,000 of its young people.

“I am certain no other California bishop will ever surpass that,” Mahony declared.

Pope John Paul II--who spoke at St. Vibiana’s during his 1987 U.S. pastoral visit--was represented Thursday by Archbishop Justin Rigali, a native of Los Angeles who now heads the Pontifical Academy in Rome. Rigali read a message from John Paul praising Manning’s “fidelity” and “patient suffering,” which, the pontiff said, provided “a splendid legacy of faith and love” and evoked “all the values of his (Manning’s) priestly life.”

Manning’s sister, Joan Cronin, and his niece, Breda Lucey and her son, were honored in the ceremony. They, with Bishop Michael Murphy of Cork, came from Ireland for the funeral. The entire Mass was televised live.

About 400 people who couldn’t find seats inside stood outside in the cathedral’s fenced garden adjoining Skid Row, watching the ceremony by closed-circuit television. The homeless, who normally line the sidewalk in front of the cathedral, were rerouted to the back entrance of the Union Rescue Mission next door for meals.

Mahony’s Sermon

Mahony preached from a text in the Gospel of John 12:24 that says: “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

That, said Mahony in measured tones, was “at the very heart of Manning’s own understanding of his vocation as disciple and priest . . . in the extraordinary dying to self that he lived and preached. . . .

“How frequently the cardinal called his flock to understand more profoundly the value of suffering and sacrifice. How eloquently he raised up this challenge in a culture and a society which was, and remains, so hostile to anything but instant gratification, uninhibited pleasures, and unbounded personal ambitions,” Mahony said.

At the time of his death, Manning, who served under six popes, was one of three retired U.S. cardinals. Six Americans, including a member of the Vatican Curia, are cardinals in active service.

After he retired, Manning lived at Holy Family parish in South Pasadena where he served as a parish priest.

Manning loved his priests “intensely,” knew each by name and “fondly referred to them as ‘a band of brothers,’ ” Mahony said in his sermon.

The wiry, soft-spoken Manning was ordained at St. Vibiana Cathedral in 1934 and consecrated a bishop there in 1946. His body had been lying in state in the cathedral, where four funeral services were conducted over a three-day period, since Tuesday night.

After soaring communion hymns sung by combined choirs and accompanied by organ strains that reverberated off the cathedral’s vaulted ceiling, Mahony sprinkled holy water on Manning’s casket and bid “the last farewell.”

But in the cemetery it was the common folk who paid the final respects.

After most of the dignitaries and clergy had filed past, several dozen mourners lingered to place home-grown flowers on Manning’s plain wooden coffin before it was lowered into the ground.