Etats-Unis : grand recueillement aux obsèques de l'abbé Cooper

La nuit précédant les obsèques, une veillée a rassemblé dans l’espérance de la Résurrection, de nombreux fidèles profondément reconnaissants envers leur pasteur défunt.

Le 8 mai, l’église était trop petite pour accueillir le grand concours de fidèles venus pour la circonstance. Plus d'une vingtaine de prêtres étaient présents à la messe solennelle de Requiem que célébra le Supérieur du district des Etats-Unis, l’abbé Jürgen Wegner.

Dans son oraison funèbre, ce dernier a expliqué que la Fraternité Saint-Pie X avait désormais acquis l’âge de la maturité. Si une nouvelle et jeune génération de prêtres remplis d’enthousiasme s’est levée, elle sait pouvoir compter, pour s’orienter dans un apostolat rendu délicat du fait de la crise de l’Eglise, sur l’expérience des prêtres plus anciens. L’abbé Daniel Cooper, ordonné en 1987, était au nombre de ceux-là.

Conformément à son souhait, le défunt a été inhumé au cimetière du Mont-des-Oliviers de Dickinson, près de l’église dans laquelle il avait exercé, de nombreuses années durant, un fructueux apostolat.

Reflecting on the Life of Fr. Cooper

In his sermon that day, Fr. Wegner called attention to the fact that Fr. Cooper has been ordained, worked, suffered, and reposed all within the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). He had served the SSPX as a priest for 31 years. While at the time of his ordination, many held to the hope that the crisis in the Church would be over after a few years, it is now clear that crisis is bigger than the lives of the Society’s priests. How long will the crisis last? And, just as important, will the SSPX continue to have the spiritual and physical resources to combat it?

The SSPX, as Fr. Wegner went on to note, is no longer a “young fraternity.” In the half-a-century since its inception, the Society has experienced setbacks, buried its members, realized its limitations, but ultimately matured. A new generation of young, vibrant priests are now filling the SSPX’s ranks, though they are dependent on the example of veteran clergy like Fr. Cooper whose years of service brought with it invaluable lessons. It is to be hoped that once the older generation of Society priests has gone to their final reward, the next “wave” of Society clergy will have the tools to carry on the holy work started decades ago by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

In concluding his sermon, Fr. Wegner spoke of the need for the SSPX’s priests like Fr. Cooper. That is, the Society needs priests who love the priesthood itself and are faithful to their vocation while always remaining humble and meek. It is priests made in the mold of Fr. Cooper who will keep the SSPX healthy and vibrant in the coming decades, and, in God’s good time, see the faithful through the ongoing crisis in the Church.

In Conclusion

Following the funeral, burial, and reception, Fr. Cooper’s brother thanked Fr. Kurtz for the beautiful ceremony and for the care given to Fr. Cooper by the faithful in Dickinson. The clergy in attendance then made their way back to their priories, no doubt edified by the outpouring of love and prayer for Fr. Cooper they had just witnessed. And the faithful themselves, who also came from all over the United States to pray their respects, can now carry with them a solemn memory of just how important our priests are for the future of the Catholic Church and the cessation of the crisis.