Mark Shields is seen in this undated photo. (CNS photo/courtesy News Hour)
By Mark Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON — At his June 22 funeral Mass, political pundit Mark Shields — a fixture for 33 years as a commentator on the PBS “NewsHour” — was remembered as a man who believed in the power of politics serving the common good, and as a man of faith and humor.
The Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, where Shields was a longtime parishioner, drew hundreds of people. Shields, who was 85, died at his Chevy Chase, Maryland, home June 18 from complications of kidney failure.
John Carr — the co-director of the Initiative on Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University and one of the speakers at the Mass — said he visited Shields two days before his death and told his friend that he “made Washington and the nation better places.”
Carr said the full church of people at Shields’ funeral Mass had come together “to say thank-you and goodbye to a good man who showed us what a life of faith, hope and love can achieve.”
Msgr. John Enzler — president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington and a former pastor at Blessed Sacrament — was the main celebrant, joined by five other priests as concelebrants, including Holy Cross Father John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame.
Shields earned a philosophy degree from Notre Dame, was an ardent supporter of its sports teams, and returned to the campus in 1997 to receive an honorary degree and serve as commencement speaker.
“For me and the priests here today, we knew Mark also as a man of faith,” Msgr. Enzler said, noting that Shields was an usher at the noon Sunday Masses at Blessed Sacrament.
The priest added, “I loved his faith. I loved his integrity. I love the way he lived that faith every day and the way he was able to share that faith, even on national television.”
Carr in his remarks said that Mark Shields was a faithful man, faithful to his family, to his nation, to his alma mater Notre Dame, to his church, to politics and to his Democratic Party.
“He was faithful to his church, living the beatitudes, championing its social teaching and challenging its failures. Mark was a ‘Pope Francis Catholic’ before there was a Pope Francis,” Carr said.
In being faithful to politics, Carr said that Shields insisted “public service is a vocation, compromise is not evil and politics is the pursuit of the common good.”
Noting Shields’ humor, Carr said when a “particularly self-absorbed pol asked him, ‘Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?’ Mark’s response was, ‘It saves them time.’”
