"Now will I praise those godly men, . . .

. . . our ancestors, each in his own time."

The Washington Post has become a truly crummy newspaper in recent years, so it comes as something of a surprise that it recently ran two fine obituaries. I had never heard of either person.

Carl J. Pfeifer, 78, who resigned from the Catholic priesthood to marry his co-author, with whom he wrote a series of influential textbooks on Catholic education, died of Alzheimer's disease July 12 at Stonehill Care Center in Dubuque, Iowa. He lived in Arlington County until last year.

. . . read the rest of the article
Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 4, 2007; Page B06

Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, 90, who died of Alzheimer's disease Aug. 10 at her home in Gloucester, Va., quietly changed history in 1944 when she refused to give up her seat on a crowded Greyhound bus to a white couple. Her case resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in interstate transportation and sparked the first Freedom Ride in 1947.

. . . read the rest of the article

Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 13, 2007; Page B04

Mr. Pfeifer's story, which Mr. Schudel tells intelligently and sensitively, touched me in several ways. First, the love story is, well, lovely. Second, I'm sure his and his wife's basic insight -- "If we're going to find God, we're going to find God in life [not in a catechism]." -- is sound, and they deserve great credit for getting the church to emphasize that fact in RE programs. (I should say, however, that I'm not so sure how well those programs have succeeded thus far.) And third, a small but telling anecdote about an incident that occurred shortly after he met his future wife:

While teaching a course on the Psalms at Catholic University in the early 1960s, Dr. Pfeifer met Manternach, who had taught in Iowa and Chicago for 11 years. One day after class, she remarked that his classroom style was all wrong.

Over the weekend, he changed his way of teaching . . .

Forty years after his ordination and 15 or 20 after receiving his Ph.D, he changed "over the weekend." He must have been a remarkably humble and open man.

Ms. Kirkaldy's story is just a revelation to me. I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of her before. And the details of her being kicked off the bus are -- now, 60 years later -- funny. One reason I'm mentioning her story, however, is that it gives me a chance to quote something about Rosa Parks, who was kicked off another bus 20 years after Ms. Kirkaldy. Douglas Brinkley (who has now joined Doris Kearns Goodwin -- and replaced Michael Beschloss -- as a favorite of Jim Lehrer and Brian Lamb) wrote a hundred and twenty page biography of Ms. Parks that is absolutely dreadful. Taylor Branch does infinitely better in what may amount to 15 pages. The most telling quote:

A tireless worker and churchgoer, of working-class station and middle-class demeanor, Rosa Parks was one of those rare people of whom everyone agreed that she gave more than she got. Her character represented one of the isolated high blips on the graph of human nature, offsetting a dozen or so sociopaths.

Parting the waters

P.S. "Now I will praise those godly men . . . ", I just learned, is how the New American Bible translates "Let us now praise famous men." And it comes not from Ecclesiastes but from Ecclesiasticus, which is now referred to as Sirach. Who'd've guessed?