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Note: On December 14, 2014, Msgr. Sal Pilato, superintendent of high schools for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, delivered the following eulogy at the Rosary for Sir Daniel Donohue. A dear friend of the College who was one of its earliest and most generous benefactors, Sir Daniel died on December 3. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

 

During the Christmas season it is not uncommon for television stations to screen the 1946 Frank Capra classic, It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey. George sacrifices his dreams in order to help many in his community. A critical error on the part of Uncle Billy puts George on the verge of bankruptcy and prison. He comes close to committing suicide when Clarence, his guardian angel, intervenes. Clarence takes George through his hometown of Bedford Falls to show him how different life would be for many people if George had never lived.

Msgr. Sal Pilato
Msgr. Sal PilatoLife in the City and Archdiocese of Los Angeles would be very different if Sir Daniel had never lived. Life here would be very different if, in 1940, he had never moved from the East Coast to Los Angeles and if he had never met Countess Bernardine Murphy.

Sir Daniel has touched the lives and helped form the hearts of countless people who have never met him or even known his name. His generosity and concern for so many organizations in so many aspects of Church life have made those organizations what they are today.

“Sir Daniel’s leadership and generosity have contributed greatly in making Thomas Aquinas College the beautiful, dynamic, and outstanding Catholic college that it has become not only here in Southern California but in the United States. Sir Daniel recognized that TAC was truly living its Catholic identity and service of Truth.”

This evening let us focus upon three of those organizations and structures that were so close to the heart of Sir Daniel: this cathedral, Thomas Aquinas College, and the inner-city archdiocesan Catholic high schools. Without the critical leadership and munificence of Sir Daniel, would this Cathedral, Thomas Aquinas College, or our inner-city Catholic high schools even exist?

Sir Daniel’s leadership in this great Cathedral project was exercised because of his love for Christ and His church. He recognized the importance and theology that undergirds the Cathedral of a great city like Los Angeles. His leadership brought about “a house of prayer for all people,” a place where the Sacred Liturgy and Sacraments are administered countless times in order to nourish and fortify the people of God. He recognized the need for an important place from which the Archbishop could lead and teach the people of the City of the Angels. His leadership in the creation of this cathedral also made a significant contribution to the revitalization of the civic core of this city. And how many times have the people of this city come here to reflect, worship, pray, and even to mourn for fallen police officers who have sacrificed their lives for others?

Sir Daniel’s leadership and generosity have contributed greatly in making Thomas Aquinas College the beautiful, dynamic, and outstanding Catholic college that it has become not only here in Southern California but in the United States. Sir Daniel recognized that TAC was truly living its Catholic identity and service of Truth. Sir Daniel was a tremendous supporter of TAC because of his love for Jesus, Who said that He “is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Sir Daniel recognized that TAC brought young men and women to an encounter with Jesus and His truths. One can be a lover of truth, but if this love does not cause us to reach out to our neighbor, then we are “a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” This college has propelled its graduates into lives of service for Christ through numerous career paths but most importantly through holy marriages and many, many priestly ordinations and religious professions.

Sir Daniel’s love for neighbor, his living of Matthew 25 — “What you did for the least of my brothers that you did unto me” — caused him to be the most important partner to inner-city archdiocesan Catholic high schools for decades. Young people from Watts, Compton, Inglewood, South Central, and the Eastside were given the opportunity to escape deficient public schools and to attend and thrive at Catholic high schools that have become an oasis in the rough and tumble of inner-city life. These students will tell you how the Catholic values and experience of community, of family, have helped to change and even save their lives and prepare them for the future of college, service, and family life.

I was principal of Junipero Serra High School for 12 years — a school that Sir Daniel and the Dan Murphy Foundation supported for decades and continues to support. I can tell you from personal experience that schools like Serra and Salesian and Conaty and Cantwell and so many others would not be open today if not for the tremendous generosity of Sir Daniel and the Foundation.

Sir Daniel visited these high schools on a regular basis. I always looked forward to his many visits. We would walk through the campus and look at the projects that were completed since his last visit. But the highlight of these visits was when he would speak with students. Here was a man who met with popes and Cardinals and many of the movers and shakers of our own society, but he was right at home speaking with African American and Latino students from the toughest neighborhoods of Los Angeles. And the stories and experiences with which he would regale them!

Mother Katherine Drexel is an American saint who used her family fortune to fund many schools, a Catholic university, and other organizations that exclusively serve minorities, especially African Americans and Native Americans. There is a story that when she was on her deathbed, surrounded by her religious sisters, she said, “Sisters, do you see them! Do you see them, all of the children!” Our good deeds go before us in the afterlife, and the children she and her sisters served so well were coming to greet her in heaven.

When Sir Daniel died and entered into eternal life on December 3, he may not have seen children. Since most of the young people that have been served here at the Cathedral, at Thomas Aquinas College, and at our archdiocesan high schools are still alive and working in this world. Perhaps their guardian angels came to greet him! And among these angels may have been a woman — Our Lady of the Angels — happy to greet her friend!

Rest in peace, Sir Daniel!