Kennedy Laid to Rest After Day of Honor

Thousands of mourners both great and ordinary bade farewell to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on Saturday, remembering him as the beloved youngest child of a dynasty who grew to be its patriarch, a man who left his mark on millions of Americans through the laws he shepherded over more than four decades, during which he became one of the most powerful political figures in the country. Mr. Kennedy’s 77-year journey through history concluded with a funeral Mass in Boston, a brief ceremony at the Capitol in Washington and his burial at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday evening.A military guard carried his coffin to the grave site as rose-colored sky grew dim, just before 8 p.m. Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, presided over the traditional Catholic burial as Mr. Kennedy’s family and a select group of close friends — including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator John Kerry — looked on, enduring the last in a day-long series of ceremonies.
“They called him the lion of the Senate and indeed that was what he was,” Cardinal McCarrick said. “His roar and his zeal for what he believed made a difference in this nation’s life.”The cleric also revealed some of the content of a letter Mr. Kennedy wrote to Pope Benedict XVI, hand-delivered by President Obama during a recent trip to the Vatican.“I’m writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my health declines,” Cardinal McCarrick read from Mr. Kennedy’s letter. “I’m 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life.”Mr. Kennedy wrote that his Roman Catholic faith “has sustained and nurtured and provided solace to me in the darkest hours,” and though “I have been an imperfect human being,” he wrote, his faith helped “right my path.”The pope responded with an assurance of “his concern and of his spiritual closeness,” Cardinal McCarrick said. Friends, family and colleagues braved relentless rain to attend the funeral in Boston, where Mr. Obama gave the eulogy in a hushed church before 1,400 mourners.“Today we say goodbye to the youngest child of Rose and Joseph Kennedy,” Mr. Obama said. “The world will long remember their son Edward as the heir to a weighty legacy, a champion for those who had none, the soul of the Democratic Party, and the lion of the United States Senate — a man whose name graces nearly 1,000 laws, and who penned more than 300 laws himself. Mr. Obama owes Mr. Kennedy an inestimable debt for his endorsement in last year’s primary campaign battle for the Democratic presidential nomination against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mr. Obama repaid it in part with eloquent words of praise, saying Mr. Kennedy had suffered more pain and loss than most people will ever know, yet he never succumbed to self-pity or abandoned his dreams and principles.“The greatest expectations were placed upon Ted Kennedy’s shoulders because of who he was, but he surpassed them all because of who he became,” the president said. “We do not weep for him today because of the prestige attached to his name or his office. We weep because we loved this kind and tender hero who persevered through pain and tragedy — not for the sake of ambition or vanity, not for wealth or power, but only for the people and the country that he loved.”The funeral was at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Roxbury section of Boston, a 130-year-old Romanesque church known as a place of healing. Mr. Kennedy prayed there every day when his daughter Kara was being treated for lung cancer several years ago at a nearby hospital.Mourners began gathering at 7 a.m. for the 10 a.m. service as a steady rain fell. Many storefronts and taverns in the neighborhood, known as Mission Hill, displayed blue and white signs reading, “Kennedy, Thanks.” Mourners arriving at the church also saw a billboard on Tremont Street with a large picture of Mr. Kennedy and the words, “The dream lives on.”President Obama arrived in Boston on Friday night from his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. Shortly before 7:30 a.m. he walked from his hotel across the street to the Fairmont Copley Plaza, where he had a private 10-minute meeting with Mrs. Kennedy.As the church filled Saturday morning, Mrs. Kennedy greeted dozens of members of Congress and other dignitaries at the John F. Kennedy Library, where Mr. Kennedy’s body lay in repose. Mrs. Kennedy and family members accompanied the flag-draped coffin in somber procession to the church, arriving at 10:45 a.m. in a bobbing sea of black umbrellas as the church bell tolled. The flag was removed and folded, replaced by a white shroud.Former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter attended the service. The other living former president, George Bush, did not attend for health reasons, an aide said. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Vice Presidents Al Gore, Dan Quayle and Walter F. Mondale also attended.Fifty-eight senators, 21 former senators and dozens of members of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended. Also present were Sarah Brown, the wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain; Shaun Woodward, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland; and Martin McGuinness, deputy first minister for the Northern Ireland Assembly.The neighborhoods around Mission Hill became a kaleidoscope of American flags, Kennedy-themed signs and the umbrellas held by the thousands who lined the streets.They testified to both Mr. Kennedy’s common appeal and his lineage. One man, David Higgins, was an Irish immigrant who credited Mr. Kennedy with helping him get a visa. Another, Maureen McQuillen, volunteered as a greeter at Mr. Kennedy’s wake on Thursday. Members of a health-care union stood in purple jackets and said Mr. Kennedy had helped labor in “innumerable ways.”