The Boston Globe is reporting that arrangements for Senator Kennedy’s funeral mass and burial have been made. Before the funeral, Senator Kennedy’s body will lie at the JFK Library and Museum in Boston, where members of the public can pay their respects. And a funeral mass is being planned for Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston’s Mission Hill Neighborhood.
The 1,300-seat basilica is one of several churches that played an important role in Kennedy’s later years when he drew closer to his Catholic faith. The Senator often went to the basilica–also known as The Mission Church–to pray when he was in Boston, especially during the years when his daughter Kara was being treated for cancer. And he was a regular figure as well in the pews at St. Francis Xavier in Hyannis (where his mother Rose used to attend mass twice daily), at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill, and at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament parish in Chevy Chase, where he and wife Victoria attended services when they were in Washington.
After Kennedy’s funeral, his body will be transported to Washington, where he will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to brothers John and Robert.
