[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 19, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8483-S8485]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO CONGRESSMAN PETER W. RODINO, JR.

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, on May 7, former Congressman Peter W. 
Rodino, Jr. died at his home in West Orange, NJ, at the age of 95. At 
the time of his death he was professor emeritus at the Seton Hall 
University School of Law, where he had continued to lecture until just 
a few months ago. He was first elected to the U.S. House of 
Representatives from New Jersey's 10th congressional district in 1948 
and went on to serve 20 terms, retiring in 1989. Throughout his long 
career he faithfully served the people of his district, and our Nation. 
It was my great privilege to serve on the House Committee on the 
Judiciary under his chairmanship, and I shall remember him always as 
``Chairman.''
  In the Congress, Peter Rodino served on the House Committee on the 
Judiciary for 24 years before becoming its chairman, quite 
unexpectedly, in 1973. At just that time it fell to the Judiciary 
Committee to determine whether the President had acted in violation of 
fundamental principles of our Constitution and, if so, to undertake the 
first step in the impeachment procedures that the Constitution sets 
out. No one understood better than Peter Rodino the magnitude of the 
challenge. It was, he often said, an ``awesome responsibility.''
  As a very junior Member of the House of Representatives, just 
beginning my second term, it was my great responsibility to serve on 
the Judiciary Committee under Chairman Rodino during the impeachment 
inquiry. In a speech on the floor of the House in February, 1974, he 
set the tone for the

[[Page S8484]]

work the committee was about to undertake: ``Whatever the result, 
whatever we learn or conclude, let us now proceed with such care and 
decency and thoroughness and honor that the vast majority of American 
people, and their children after them, will say: `That was the right 
course. There was no other way.' ''
  Chairman Rodino held the committee to those standards. As Michael T. 
Kaufman wrote in the New York Times on May 9, he proceeded with ``great 
patience, caution, enormous energy, and fairness above all.'' In his 
role as chairman, Peter Rodino saw himself as ``teacher, negotiator, 
leader and symbol,'' striving to achieve ``a spirit of fairness and 
bipartisanship.'' In this he was successful: members of the committee 
drew together over the course of the inquiry, approving three articles 
of impeachment on strong bipartisan votes and, ultimately, reaching 
unanimity on the need to move the impeachment process forward.
  Of his service during the impeachment inquiry, Chairman Rodino told 
his biographer, Gerald Pomper, ``I was just the same Peter Rodino I've 
been all the time from the very first day I came to the Congress.'' 
Indeed he was. Throughout his years in the Congress he worked hard, and 
he brought to his work both a bright and hopeful vision for our country 
and great skill as a legislator. His legislative achievements were 
remarkable: major contributions to the great Civil Rights Acts of the 
1960s--he served as floor manager of the Civil Rights Act of 1966; 
passage of landmark fair housing and fair-employment practices 
legislation; immigration reform that overturned the decades-old system 
of rigid, country-based quotas. Later he wrote the Voting Rights 
Extension Act of 1982, and he played a leading role in establishing a 
national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  It can be said of Peter Rodino that in his life he embraced the 
American experience in the 20th century. The child of Italian 
immigrants, born and raised in the Little Italy neighborhood in Newark, 
NJ, he earned his law degree over a period of 10 years by working days 
and taking classes at night. Well before Pearl Harbor and the U.S. 
entry into World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, served in the 
North African and Italian campaigns, received one of the first 
battlefield commissions, was awarded the Bronze Star, and retired with 
the rank of captain. Upon leaving the Army, he entered the Congress; 
upon retiring from the Congress, he joined the faculty of the Seton 
Hall Law School. There he remained until his death, attentive to the 
end to his students and colleagues. He believed in our democratic 
institutions and their capacity to improve the lives of our people. 
``There was not a single day of his professional life,'' according to 
the Dean of Seton Hall Law School, ``when he didn't carry a copy of the 
Constitution in his pocket.'' The country will forever be grateful to 
him.
  Chairman Rodino was remembered by his family, friends, colleagues at 
Seton Hall Law School and former colleagues in the U.S. House of 
Representative in a very moving ceremony at St. Lucy Church, Newark NJ, 
on May 16, 2005. I ask unanimous consent that the homily of the 
Reverend Nicholas S. Gengaro, Chaplain of the Seton Hall Law School, 
and the eulogy delivered by Paula A. Franzese, Peter W. Rodino at the 
Seton Hall Law School, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               Homily of the Reverend Nicholas S. Gengaro


  FUNERAL MASS, THE HONORABLE PETER W. RODINO, JR., ST. LUCY CHURCH, 
                     MONDAY, MAY 16, 2005, 11:00 AM

       Readings: Wisdom--3:1-9; Romans--8:14-23; Matthew--5:1-12a.
       The NBC television network will be pleased to hear me claim 
     a place among the fans of its award-winning weekly drama 
     series, The West Wing. I confess that I am drawn in by the 
     promise of a walk down the corridors of power, an ear inside 
     decision-making at the highest level, a look at how things 
     get done in our country, our world. Of course, the show is 
     fiction, but the writers purposely dramatize current events 
     and issues.
       In an episode this spring, one of the characters running 
     for election to the presidency rebelled against pressure from 
     religious groups to disclose his religious beliefs and 
     practices. ``If the American people begin to insist on 
     knowing where and how often their leaders worship God,'' he 
     declares, ``then, they are begging to be lied to.'' Religion 
     and politics are a volatile mix. Since 1998, when I became 
     chaplain at Seton Hall School of Law, I have had the 
     privilege of knowing the Honorable Peter W. Rodino, Jr. 
     The first time I attended the annual Rodino Law Society 
     Dinner, I spotted the Congressman in the crowd and 
     wrestled down my shyness to walk over and introduce 
     myself. Not only was I aware of the heroic role he had 
     played in our nation's history, but I remembered hearing 
     about him from my childhood, his name spoken by proud 
     Italian American relatives who had been helped personally 
     by him. To me he was a national icon, but also a bit of a 
     ``household god,'' patron of the good name and self-
     respect of the vast number of Americans whose surnames end 
     in a vowel.
       That initial conversation lasted nearly an hour. 
     Congressman Rodino remembered my great uncle who ran a 
     business right outside St. Lucy's Church, here at 7th Avenue 
     and Cutler Street. I was to discover over the years that 
     Peter Rodino remembered everything. Young in his nineties, 
     the Congressman could quote statesmen, historians, poets, 
     even song lyrics--sometimes in another language. But most of 
     all he remembered people.
       In 1977, at the unveiling of the portrait of Congressman 
     Rodino that hangs in the chamber of the House Judiciary 
     Committee, Vice President Walter Mondale suggested that Peter 
     Rodino's ``life has stood and stands for `the love of country 
     and the love of freedom kept pure by the tenderest humanity 
     for all mankind' '' (Proceedings Before the Committee on the 
     Judiciary, May 12, 1977, 95th Congress, 1st Session, House 
     Document 95-307, p.8).
       In other words, Congressman Rodino regarded his career in 
     public service as a labor of love. He often quoted Thomas 
     Paine's axiom ``for those who would enjoy the fruits of 
     liberty, they must first undergo the fatigue of supporting 
     it'' (Address to the Trial Lawyers Association of New Jersey, 
     2002). As a little boy the Congressman once stood next to his 
     mother listening to the music of the band at a religious 
     festival. He began to wave his hands as if to conduct the 
     band, and continued to do so with glee for song after song. 
     ``Someday you will be a leader of men!'' his mother told him. 
     Peter Rodino, Sr., would remind his son of these words many 
     years later.
       Fr. Timothy Healy, President of Georgetown University, 
     shortly after the events of Watergate had run their course, 
     arrived at the heart of the matter when he said of 
     Congressman Rodino, ``It took our time of trouble to show us 
     what he really is. As this nation rocked in shame, all of us 
     watched Chairman Rodino manage our destiny. We came to know 
     his calmness, his strength, his sense of order. We grew to 
     trust his honesty. We watched the citizen-politician at work, 
     and as we watched, we rediscovered in him the best of 
     ourselves and of this Nation. Through long and bitter hours, 
     to millions of Americans, Peter Rodino was America.'' Fr. 
     Healy concluded, ``We have seen a just man doing justice'' 
     (Proceedings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, May 12, 
     1977, 95th Congress, 1st Session, House Document 95-307, pp. 
     1-2).
       Is Peter W. Rodino, Jr., a saint? To the countless marks of 
     distinction awarded him in this life--honorary degrees, 
     orders of knighthood, eponymous institutes and chairs of 
     learning--can we suppose him now to be also one of the elect 
     in heaven? Of course, to God alone belongs such a judgment. 
     Yet the Scripture proclaimed in this Mass of Resurrection 
     clearly indicates, ``The souls of the just are in the hand of 
     God.'' The Book of Wisdom explains, ``As gold in the furnace, 
     he proved them.'' The Letter of Paul to the Romans echoes, 
     ``The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are 
     children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and 
     joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him, so that 
     we may also be glorified with him.''
       Congressman Rodino told me that he kept two texts next to 
     his bed: the Bible and the Constitution of the United States 
     of America. In a speech just this past October, he called the 
     52 words of the Preamble his ``guiding light'' (Rodino Law 
     Society Dinner, October 27, 2004). He was passionate about 
     the imperative found there ``to secure the Blessings of 
     Liberty.'' ``The Blessings of Liberty'' was a favorite theme 
     of his. The word ``blessing'' was as important to him as the 
     word ``liberty.'' He firmly believed that the great nation of 
     the United States of America would lose its way if it ceased 
     to be aware that every good thing, and especially freedom, is 
     bestowed according to the providence of a higher power.
       For this reason, in 1954, he was a sponsor of the 
     legislation which added the words ``under God'' to the Pledge 
     of Allegiance. ``We deliberately left the phrase short and 
     vague so as to offend no creed and embrace all possible 
     concepts of the higher power. The point is to preserve us 
     from arrogance,'' he explained to me.
       Every day of his life, Congressman Rodino prayed the Prayer 
     of St. Francis of Assisi.

     ``Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
     Where there is hatred, let me sow your love.
     Where there is injury, pardon; doubt, faith; despair, hope; 
           darkness, light; sadness, joy.''

       This prayer of the 13th century saint, co-patron of Italy, 
     is itself a reflection on Matthew's so-called ``Beatitudes'' 
     from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. We heard the proclamation:


[[Page S8485]]


     ``Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .
     they who mourn . . .
     the meek . . .
     they who hunger and thirst for righteous-
           ness . . .
     the merciful . . .
     the clean of heart . . .
     the peacemakers . . .
     they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. . . .''

       Can we not see how the Honorable Peter Rodino implemented 
     these texts in his life? Is it an accident that countless 
     immigrants were given hope and a new start in a land of 
     opportunity because of legislation he sponsored to remove 
     unfair quotas? Is it a coincidence that this man of integrity 
     evolved to serve a new constituency in his district in the 
     1960s, that he became a champion of civil rights and voting 
     rights for all citizens regardless of race, color or creed, 
     identifying himself with the persecuted and those hungering 
     and thirsting for righteousness? Was he reciting St. Francis 
     to himself and remembering the Beatitudes when he took part 
     in disarmament conferences and the stability and security 
     efforts of the parliamentary arm of NATO? ``Make me an 
     instrument of your peace. . . .''
       In his recent volume, Ordinary Heroes and American 
     Democracy, Gerald M. Pomper, in the chapter ``Peter Rodino: A 
     hero of the House,'' writes, ``Our concept of the democratic 
     hero looks for heroism among ordinary people doing their 
     customary work in the moments of crisis.'' He dubs Peter 
     Rodino a ``workhorse'' of the U.S. House of Representatives, 
     and reminds us of the messiness with which the work of 
     democracy proceeds in that body, by compromise, consensus-
     building, careful and dexterous application of the rules.
       I would like to suggest that Peter Rodino is also an 
     ordinary hero of his faith. Like the character in The West 
     Wing, he eschewed a flamboyant, pretentious, self-conscious 
     politician's instrumentalization of religious practice, which 
     threatens democracy with theocracy. Instead, to paraphrase 
     the prophet Micah, he knew the right, he did the right and he 
     walked humbly with his God.
       The Catholic funeral liturgy is a celebration of hope. Four 
     days before his death, Congressman Rodino sat in his recliner 
     chair when I visited him. His breathing was labored and he 
     struggled to stay awake. At one point he forced his eyes wide 
     open and asked, ``What's the world situation?'' Sure I had 
     heard wrong, I began naming a number of comfort items I 
     supposed he was wanting: Water? Juice? Another blanket? ``Do 
     you want me to get Joy?'' I asked. ``The world!'' he 
     reiterated, certainly annoyed with my narrow focus on 
     conveniences. ``Tell me about the world. What's happening?'' 
     This man was not leaving this life, this world that had held 
     him in endless fascination, one moment sooner than he 
     absolutely had to.
       Nor is he absent from us now. The Honorable Peter W. 
     Rodino, Jr., is heir to the promise made to all who are 
     baptized into Christ, of life unending with his Creator. May 
     his be the blessings of a liberty far greater than we now 
     know how to ask for or imagine. With St. Francis we conclude, 
     ``For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning 
     that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to 
     eternal life.''

       By Rev. Nicholas S. Gengaro
       Chaplain, Seton Hall School of Law.
                                  ____


   Keep That Good Heart: The Life and Legacy of Congressman Peter W. 
                                 Rodino

(By Paula A. Franzese, Peter W. Rodino Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law 
 School; Prof. Franzese Delivered the Eulogy at Cong. Rodino's Funeral 
                            on May 16, 2005)

       The last words spoken to me by my beloved mentor and 
     friend, Cong. Peter W. Rodino, just days before his passing, 
     were: ``Keep that good heart.'' In those four words we find 
     the measure of the man and the magnitude of his legacy. Keep 
     that good heart, mindful that there will be many temptations 
     to do otherwise. This life can be a vessel of sadness, but 
     even in the face of all disenchantment and cynicism and 
     disappointment, still, keep that good heart.
       Peter asked us to be relentless in our capacity to anchor 
     ourselves in love, in compassion, in humility, in virtue, no 
     matter the adversity, no matter the turmoil, no matter the 
     naysayers. We live in a world that finds itself preoccupied 
     with glamour and status and fortune and fame. Yet, here is 
     this iconic public figure, who walked with kings and held the 
     hand of a nation as he navigated the way out of a 
     constitutional crisis of unparalleled dimension, this 
     luminary and dignitary, this man of the House, who valued, 
     above all else, goodness of heart. He respected intelligence, 
     and he was brilliant, but he respected kindness even more.
       And so it was, with great love, that this humble boy from 
     Newark, the son of a carpenter and the child of Italian 
     immigrants, moved mountains. His illustrious career in the 
     House of Representatives began in 1948, and spanned four 
     decades. Always, he ran on his own terms, never beholden to 
     anyone or anything. He sought public office as a politician 
     in the highest and best sense of the word. He was a champion 
     of the underdog, a spokesman for those without a voice. It 
     has been said that the principal cause of human suffering is 
     forgetfulness. Peter never forgot who he was, what he stood 
     for or where he came from.
       John Henry Newman wrote, ``I sought to hear the voice of 
     God, and climbed the topmost steeple. But God declared, `Go 
     down again. I dwell among the people.' '' Peter Rodino heard 
     the voice of God in the voices of the people. And there, he 
     found the courage to do what needed to be done. He came to 
     the House to accomplish civil rights reform, to redress the 
     inequities of the nation's immigration laws and to promote 
     equal access to justice for all. And so he did.
       Quietly, during a time when such an agenda for reform was 
     fiercely unpopular, he worked relentlessly, securing a seat 
     on the House Judiciary Committee and serving as a key 
     lieutenant whose work in the trenches, on the floor of the 
     House, helped to secure the passage of virtually every major 
     civil rights bill, including the watershed Civil Rights Act 
     of 1964. The Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham, Alabama 
     contains the historic photograph of President Lyndon B. 
     Johnson signing that landmark legislation into law, flanked 
     by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his left and 
     Congressman Peter Rodino to his right.
       Peter Rodino was a champion for the cause of civil rights 
     and civil liberties because he chose to be a man for all 
     people, irrespective of race, class, gender or ethnic origin. 
     It is no accident that, until his last days on Earth, he 
     carried in his pocket a tattered copy of the Preamble to the 
     U.S. Constitution. The Preamble begins with the words, ``We 
     the people.'' It holds out the promise that the blessings of 
     liberty belong not just to some of us, but to all of us.
       And so it was that this great patriot had a date with 
     destiny. In 1974, as a country on the brink of a 
     constitutional impasse waited, and this fourteen year old sat 
     transfixed in front of the TV set, the Watergate hearings 
     began, and we found a hero. In Peter Rodino, humility met 
     preparation, and that boy from Barringer High School, who had 
     dedicated a lifetime to the cause of fundamental fairness and 
     equal justice under law, accepted the challenge.
       We watched as the gentleman from Newark, carrying the 
     weight of a nation's suffering on his shoulders, stood firm 
     and dignified and tall, never wavering from his reverence for 
     the office of the presidency and never departing from his 
     conviction that our great democracy would withstand, indeed, 
     transcend, this greatest test.
       Because of him, it did. And because of him, we did. In the 
     process, Peter Rodino gave us all something that we so 
     desperately needed. He gave us hope. Timothy White wrote, 
     ``Historically, certain figures emerge from despairing 
     cultures to reinterpret old symbols and beliefs and invest 
     them with new meaning. An individual's decision to play such 
     a role may be purely unconscious, but it can sometimes evolve 
     into an acute awareness that he or she may indeed have the 
     gift, as well as the burden, of prophecy.'' Peter Rodino was 
     such a figure. Sen. Ted Kennedy, in sending his condolences, 
     said: ``Many of us felt as we watched the Watergate hearings 
     that we were seeing a founding father in action, living the 
     highest ideals of the Constitution. I'm sure my brother would 
     have called him a profile in courage. I feel the same way, 
     and I'll never forget him.''
       When all is said and done, none of us will ever forget 
     Peter Rodino, because of the way that he made us feel. His 
     life bears living witness to the greatness of our nation. His 
     story reminds us that we live in a world of infinite 
     possibilities, and that there is a force that meets good with 
     good. We watched, and we knew. Here was a gifted leader who 
     was, first and foremost, a good person. It is a testament to 
     the man that, when the vote to impeach was rendered, rather 
     than grandstand or resort to petty partisanship, he retreated 
     to his private chambers and he wept. Always, he kept that 
     good heart.
       Peter spoke to our community just months ago, at Seton Hall 
     Law School's Rodino Dinner, where he urged us all to live a 
     life that matters. What will matter, he said, is not your 
     success, but your significance; not what you bought but what 
     you built. Implicit in all that he stood for is the premise 
     that people can be mean and cruel and irresponsible, but it 
     is up to us to love them anyway. If you commit to goodness 
     and to compassionate honesty in a world fraught with too much 
     brutal honesty, you may be accused of insincerity or of 
     building pies in the sky. But commit to the virtuous path 
     anyway. And if you dare to believe in the majesty of your 
     dreams, so that you do what you can with what you have, your 
     heart may sometimes break. But a broken heart has more room.
       Peter, today we bask in the glow of your magnificent heart. 
     And although our own hearts ache because your days on Earth 
     have come to an end, we know that the angels rejoiced as they 
     welcomed you home. We know that you must have received the 
     most extraordinary standing ovation of all time, amidst the 
     resounding cheers and the tears of joy, all proclaiming: 
     ``Well done, Mr. Chairman, well done.''

                          ____________________