November 13, 2005

In this month of the Holy Souls for whom we pray, we remember the widely diverse men and women who over the years have worshiped in our church. I call to mind, for example, Wellington Mara who died two weeks ago. While not a parishioner, he prayed here often. The last time I saw him dancing was with his wife of fifty-one years, Ann, at our parish’s Golden Anniversary dinner. I also remember his kindness at my own mother’s funeral.

As an owner of the Giants from the age of fourteen, he was very much admired by his players and coaches, including Frank Gifford, Kyle Rote, Roosevelt Grier, and Vince Lombardi. Among his countless philanthropies, nothing surpassed his ardor for right-to-life causes. His “Life Athletes” continues to use his well-known players to instruct youth in respect for life. Rarely outspoken, he did reply to Mario Cuomo’s dissembling on abortion: “The Church has never changed its teaching on the sanctity of life—it didn’t make up a rule for the convenience of a particular time, like a rule at a country club, as the Governor would have us believe.”

Wellington reared his eleven children and forty grandchildren in the Faith. Each Christmas he would tell them “No confession, no Santa.” Ann and he were daily communicants all their lives and the rosary with which he was buried was one he prayed many times each day. He was cheerful when I saw him in the hospital shortly before his death and, drawing on the reserves of the Church’s merit for a holy death, he told his eldest son: “I’ll be there when you get there.”

Once when a sportswriter had condescendingly asked what one might expect from the son of a bookmaker, he responded: “I’ll tell you what you can expect. You can expect anything he says or writes may be repeated aloud in your own home in front of your own children. You can believe that he was taught to love and respect all mankind, but to fear no man. And you can believe that his abiding ambitions were to pass on to his family the true richness of the inheritance he received from his father, the bookmaker: The knowledge and love and fear of God, and second, to give you a Super Bowl winner.”

Having been anointed and ready to meet his Judge, Wellington watched his team on television for one last time, and the Giants won against Denver with a touchdown pass in the final five seconds.

Wellington and countless souls whom we have known put into action God’s words: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

Fr. George W. Rutler