'Who am I to judge?' These are the words that Pope Francis used when speaking about homosexual persons. He was speaking during an interview on the plane returning from the World Youth Day in Rio de Janiero. I'm sure he would have been delighted by the love and respect shown to John Lynch and Kevin Devine at their wake and funeral at St Teresa's Carmelite Church in downtown Dublin in August last year.
John, a viola player with the Irish National Orchestra, and Kevin, a senior manager with the Department of Health, tragically drowned at Kissamos Beach in Crete on the last day of their summer holiday. No one knows the complete story but it seems that on a stormy day Kevin got into difficulties and John went to his rescue. Kevin was already dead when pulled from the water, while John, despite the efforts of three doctors on the beach, could not be revived.
My wife, Lynne Muir, knew John and his family well through the Melbourne Irish community and we had met John and Kevin at various music functions in Ireland and Melbourne. Our last meeting with them together was at John's mother's funeral earlier in the year when Lynne sang at the graveside. Both of John's parents died within a few months of each other less than a year before the tragic drowning.
We arrived in Crete the day after the drownings. The news was a huge shock as John had sent Lynne a long email describing their holiday just the day before. As we were on the spot we were able to assist both families in gathering information and contacts. John was a very loved and admired musician and news of the drowning travelled very quickly around the world. Our own news of the event came via New York.
Our travel plans enabled us to attend the wake and funeral in Dublin. Kevin's in-laws generously met us at the airport, put us up for the night and patiently waited up for us as we attended reunions of people who had flown in from many overseas locations. Kevin's sister-in-law, Karen, an event organiser, very capably co-ordinated the wake and Requiem Mass.
St Teresa's Church in the heart of Dublin fronting Clarendon Street has a two hundred year history and while the predominance of marble in the sanctuary and the altar itself tended to create an austere setting, it was softened by the beautiful stained glass windows and the packed congregation - and the music. What the church may have lacked in initial warmth was immediately dispelled with the opening hymn when the Irish National Orchestra began to play several introductory pieces and then accompanied the congregation loudly proclaiming, Holy God We Praise Thy Name.
Each family then processed with the coffins to the altar steps placing a single bouquet of flowers at the foot of each and a rose and crucifix on the top. Younger members of each family later added symbols of John and Kevin's lives.
Then followed several musical items from the viola section of the orchestra, members of John's original Australian quartet playing his arrangement of an Irish lament, a Gaelic song from Eileen Begley and a more popular song from one of Kevin's friends.
The wake followed the traditional Catholic service with readings on love, friendship and the promise of a new life in Jesus. The eulogies spoke of the joy each gave to his family and friends. More importantly over and over the eulogies showed how John and Kevins' relationship and the love for each other was accepted and celebrated by friends and family. In fact the photos in the booklets prepared in Dublin and for the subsequent Melbourne memorial gathering showed several examples of this.
The Requiem Mass the next day was anything but a solemn affair. The choir sang a Haydn mass accompanied by a string ensemble and the coffins were carried out together, John to be cremated in Dublin and Kevin to be buried near his family home. John's ashes were placed in Kevin's grave in Dublin and his parents' grave in Melbourne.
A lot of things came together to make this tragic event so memorable. Certainly the power and quality of the music made it unique and easily heightened people's emotions. At the end of the wake I looked up at the balcony in the side transept above the orchestra and saw the brass section rise. Then followed an extraordinary powerful rendition of How Great Thou Art! But I also looked down at the two coffins resting at the edge of the sanctuary and shed a tear for the tragic loss of two great friends. I shed another tear also to see such public recognition of the love these two young men had for each other, to see that it was embraced by the public face of the Church which said clearly, 'Who are we to judge, they are our brothers?'
Garry Eastman is Executive Chairman of Garratt Publishing