[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 146 (Thursday, September 19, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E925-E926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





   EULOGY BY MONSIGNOR SYLVA AT THE FUNERAL MASS OF CONGRESSMAN BILL 
                                PASCRELL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 19, 2024

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, Bill Pascrell was one of the 
most unique and authentic people I have ever had the privilege of 
knowing and serving with as both a colleague and a dear friend. He was 
so loved and appreciated for his candor and for the authentic way that 
he communicated his concerns for the people of Paterson and all of New 
Jersey. The Congress will never quite be the same, and nor will the 
`corner,' our committee, or the Democratic Caucus. He was loved and 
respected by both Democrats and Republicans. He had that kind of impact 
on people and especially his friends and family for whom he deeply 
loved. Our hearts go out to his wife Elsie, his sons William III, 
Glenn, and David, his grandchildren, and the entire Pascrell family.
  It is my honor to include in the Record a eulogy delivered by 
Monsignor Eugene R. (Geno) Sylva of the Cathedral of St. John the 
Baptist in Paterson, NJ, who on August 28th captured the essence of the 
Late Honorable Bill Pascrell:

       A reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke: ``For if 
     you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 
     sinners who love those who love them. If you do good to those 
     who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even 
     sinners do the same. If you lend money to those whom you 
     expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners 
     lend to sinners and get back the same amount. But rather, 
     love your enemies, do good to them, lend expecting nothing 
     back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be 
     children of the Most High. For He himself is kind to the 
     ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your 
     Father is merciful.'' The Gospel of the Lord.
       Please be seated.
       Elsie, Bill, Glenn, David, Kelly, the whole family, please 
     know that our love and our prayers have been with you and 
     will continue to be with you. And to have all of you here, 
     and to have his bishop, deacons, priests, to have his beloved 
     firefighters, his wonderful group of pastors, his peers in 
     politics--the Congressman would've loved this. And Bill, I 
     think you're right, if your father was speaking, he'd still 
     be talking now. Because we tried at times, there was no doing 
     this (motions to cut off) once he got rollin'.
       On the morning of Sherriff Richard Berdnik's funeral mass, 
     this cathedral was overflowing with people. Police officers, 
     firefighters lined the streets outside, the haunting sounds 
     of the bagpipes wailed, when all of a sudden, my phone in my 
     pocket begins to buzz. Worried that there might be an 
     emergency outside, I take the phone out of my pocket, and I 
     see the name Congressman Bill Pascrell. So, in a hushed 
     voice, I answered the phone, hoping that The Congressman 
     realized that the funeral was about to begin. There on the 
     line, was the frantic voice of The Congressman, ``Monsignor, 
     delay the start of the mass, I'm running late! You have to 
     stall for 15 minutes.'' This is no exaggeration. ``I loved 
     the sheriff, I can't be late for the mass, I have to be 
     there, I'm tellin' ya, start late.'' I gotta be honest with 
     you, my heart dropped. I'm sure we've all been in those 
     situations where the beloved Congressman has spoken very . . 
     . strongly. You never wanted to let him down, right? You see, 
     after the Sherriff's wake the evening before, the Congressman 
     had been rushed to the hospital and was only being released 
     that very morning. He wanted to go home with Elsie and get 
     changed so that he could look presentable for the funeral 
     mass for his beloved friend, Sherriff Berdnik. Now, most 
     normal men, they probably would've gone home and gone to bed. 
     Not Bill. He had to go to church to pray for his friend.
       But that's Congressman William J. Pascrell Jr. If he loved 
     ya, there was no extent that he would not go to in order to 
     help ya. But what made him truly remarkable, as it is easy to 
     help those whom you love, and who you love, was that Bill 
     would do all that he could to assist you even if he didn't 
     like you, and you might not have liked him. Yes, he was a 
     self-proclaimed tough guy, a street fighter from Paterson, 
     ``with only one T!'' Right, how many times did we hear that? 
     But what made him so remarkable, and please take this to 
     heart, the Congressman could fight without hate. He could 
     fight without hate. He could become enraged and angry, I'm 
     sure we all felt that, without becoming vengeful. How many 
     times did he and I argue bitterly? And I'm sure you can guess 
     on what some of those issue might have been. I mean we really 
     slugged it out. But as heated as the discussions may have 
     become, however, he never let the disagreement--his anger--
     lead him to disregard my position, my personhood. And in 
     those exchanges, I got to see his heart, and he took the time 
     to see my heart.
       And how was he able to do this? Because he fought one 
     particular prized fight every day. One that was even more 
     important than all of those battles on Capitol Hill. And what 
     was that fight? Not to allow his justified anger--to make the 
     world a better place--to simmer and to settle into hatred. 
     For St. Thomas Aquinas had written, ``anger becomes a mortal 
     sin only if through the fierceness of anger, one falls away 
     from the love of God and his neighbor.'' You see, anger is 
     not always contrary to love. For it seeks at times to make 
     things right. It's only sin when it's no longer tethered to 
     love, which is the greatest good.
       Bill was able to tether his fierceness to love. His fiery 
     character, which was trained in virtue by his dear parents, 
     St. John's High School, and yes, the Jesuits at Fordham, to 
     bring about good for God's kingdom. Friends, if there ever 
     was a quote to capture the essence of Congressman 
     Pascrell, it was the words of St. Augustine, whose feast 
     day we celebrate today, so thank you for the other quote 
     from St. Augustine: ``Hope has two beautiful daughters--
     their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things 
     are and Courage to see that they do not remain the way 
     that they are''.
       Because Bill was a man of justified anger, not of hatred--a 
     man of courage, not of intimidation, the Congressman offered 
     to each one of us in our own ways hope. I just invite you for 
     a moment to recall one of those moments of hope that 
     Congressman Bill Pascrell gave you. A moment of hope that 
     might have been uncomfortable in the moment, but it got you 
     to a place you never thought you could get, and you got.
       Friends, as wonderful as those memories are, we're not here 
     today merely to recall those earthly moments of hope that 
     Bill gave us, but to pray for his eternal soul, won only 
     through Christ's victorious battle over sin and death. For 
     it's only Christ's victorious battle, not those that we wage, 
     that we find Christian hope. Our politicians, you provide us 
     with optimism, and boy, do we need that. But only Christ 
     graces us with eternal hope, through His victory, not on 
     Capitol Hill in Washington, but a hill called Golgotha in 
     Jerusalem. How we need both human hope and theological 
     Christian hope. For what is Christian hope? Christian hope is 
     trusting in another who is capable of extending and expanding 
     out limited hope and optimism into the future, into the 
     Divine. And that other is Jesus Christ. Chrisitan hope is 
     more than optimism, a belief that all will be well tomorrow. 
     Hope has a name and a face, hope is a person, and he is Jesus 
     Christ. And with hope and with the Lord, we can face the 
     future without having to know what tomorrow looks like or 
     what even awaits us. With hope, with Him, we know that our 
     lives will not end in emptiness. We have hope in the person 
     of Jesus who is alive and always with us. We know Him and we 
     trust Him. Friends in the resurrection, the risen Lord speaks 
     to us and tells us, ``Yes you need me, for no one can do this 
     on their own, no matter the titles we have, the power we 
     have. Yes, you need me, and you love me, and you have me, for 
     I died for you.'' Friends, in our grief today, we are offered 
     hope amidst our tears. For with hope in Christ, we see the 
     loss of our husband, our father, our grandfather, our peer, 
     and our friend in the light of the resurrection, for even now 
     through our tears the Lord makes the sunset of death give 
     itself way to the dawning of eternal life. Filled with hope, 
     as we just pause for a moment to remember a man who assisted 
     us in this life. So now we pause to pray for him into the 
     next. For you see, if our relationships--our love--ended in 
     death, then Bill's death would be a tragedy: an opportunity 
     lost, a wound perpetually raw. Thus, it is death that we must 
     ask the most important question I really believe: ``Can I 
     love someone more, even after they died?'' And the answer is 
     yes. And how? By praying our loved one on the final road, 
     through the purification of sin, to his final home in heaven. 
     And friends, speaking of the road to heaven, I'm reminded of 
     something interested about the road to Paterson. Bill 
     Pascrell III this week told me something interesting about 
     his father that I never knew. That Governor Murphy, back in 
     2020, designated Route 19 the William J. Pascrell Highway. 
     Right? But before you clap; Governor Murphy, that was 
     wonderful. But . . . while you clap, Billy told me that the 
     other day, I thought to myself `how did I not know that?' You 
     know why I didn't know it? There's no sign telling us that. 
     Sorry Governor, there's no sign. I had to do it. Sorry Mayor. 
     Sorry. Thanks. The road the Congressman has taken, you Elsie, 
     Bill, David, Glenn, the entire family, you've been on with 
     him, you were with him

[[Page E926]]

     through each battle, though there may be no public signs 
     designated to his road or your road. That's ok. You and Dad 
     never needed fame. You see, you knew that he loved you more 
     than everyone else and knew that it was you who allowed him 
     to fight the good fight each day.
       And Elsie, having seen you both side-by-side for 30 years, 
     I believe it was only your sweetness, your humility, your 
     strength, your goodness, which in the end, allowed him to win 
     the most important prized fight of his life: that of being 
     man of justified anger, rather than one who ever had a 
     hateful heart. For in the end, Elsie, he always knew that he 
     had you, his greatest prize ever.
       By the way, just finishing, you're wondering about Sherriff 
     Berdnik's funeral--what did he do? I was really in a pickle, 
     half Polish, half Italian. I had to start the mass on time 
     for our Polish Sheriff, because I knew he would want that. 
     But being half Italian, I knew I had to wait for our Italian 
     Congressman, for I feared his wrath if I didn't wait. I was 
     saved in the end by the Paterson Police Department and 
     Passaic County Sheriff's department, because I called 
     everyone and said, ``Get to Ninth Ave, and get the 
     Congressman and Elsie here.'' It was miraculous, I think we 
     started two minutes late.
       Congressman Pascrell, my dear friend, thank you. I bet you 
     speedily arrive home to heaven, where there will be no need 
     more for you to be fiery and fierce, and where I'm sure 
     Paterson will be spelled correctly. And don't worry Bill, 
     we're going to get that sign up on Route 19.
       Bill, through the mercy of God and the help of our prayers, 
     just get home to heaven.

                          ____________________