Opening Remarks: Msgr. Murray & President Higgins

Opening Remarks to Schiller Institute Concert of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, A Remembrance of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th Anniversary of His Death & A Recommitment to the Principles of His Presidency

[Note: The greetings of Monsignor Murray and President Higgins are as written.]

Good evening. My name is Matthew Ogden, and it is my great honor to welcome all of you here to this event tonight, as we gather to mark a very solemn occasion: The death of our President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 50 years ago today. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem Mass was performed as part a liturgy, in memoriam of President Kennedy following his death, for his wife and family at Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross. Tonight you will hear members of the Schiller Institute Chorus, joined by an orchestra and soloists, specially assembled for the occasion, under the direction of our conductor John Sigerson. I would like to thank especially, Nancy Novelly, director of music here at St. Mark [Catholic Church, Vienna, Va.], Father Patrick Holroyd, and the entire congregation for the opportunity to hold this special event.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756 – 1791)

Mozart himself died before having the chance to complete this work, his final composition, much in the same way that Kennedy’s life was cut short, brought to a sudden and early end, before he could complete his work. His work still remains unfulfilled. And it is for this reason that we have decided to honor him tonight, with a piece that is altogether fitting, a piece that not only promises that justice shall ultimately prevail, that all that lies hidden shall eventually be revealed, and that no guilty act shall go unpunished. But also, that although we must die, life does not end, that mortality is a condition merely of the flesh, not of our spirit. As President Kennedy said, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.”
The resurrection of Kennedy’s spirit today is the responsibility of us, the living. The purpose of our concert here tonight, is to recommit ourselves to the principles of his Presidency, to peace, to progress, and to the imagination of a future that we may give to our posterity, for our nation and for the entire world.
We have received some greetings tonight, for our concert from around the world. And before introducing our two special guests tonight, who will be giving some opening remarks, I would like to share with you, two of these greetings, which I think President Kennedy would have appreciated very much.

The first comes from Msgr. Raymond Murray, who is the Rector of the Cardinal O’ Fiaich Memorial Library in Armagh, the ecclesiastical seat of Ireland. And as I’m sure you well know, Kennedy was a proud Irish Catholic, whose family had roots stretching back centuries through Irish history. His great-grandfather was forced to emigrate in 1848, to escape the Great Famine. He came to Boston and just over a century later, his great-grandson was elected President of the United States.

As President, John Kennedy travelled back to visit his ancestral homeland in County Wexford, just south of Dublin, and the Irish people remain immensely proud of him today. So Monsignor Murray’s greetings are as follows:

It is not just that the shot that rang out and killed John F. Kennedy re-echoes now in the sadness of history or that those of us alive at the time recall the shocking moment when we heard of his death. His smile of friendship, his eloquence, his earnest plea to each of us to ask ourselves what we can do for our country remain forever. In our global world of increasing fraternity our calling is to answer his message of kinship – his speech at Wexford spelt out that he is one of the greater Irish family, his speech in Berlin emphasised his identity with the rich inheritance of that great city. That is symbolic of humanity’s close relationship.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy! Fitzgerald recalls for us Lord Edward Fitzgerald, courageous United Irishman inspired by the American and French revolutions. John would have been proud of that. Kennedy – Cinnéide – is a name that derives from the nephew of Brian Bórú, king of Ireland (c. 941-1014). And we Irish are proud that John F. Kennedy was the first man of Gaelic-Irish ancestry to hold the office of President of the United States of America.

Let us continually repossess his message of fraternal love and peace.

Monsignor Raymond Murray
Armagh, Ireland

Michael D. Higgins,
President of the Republic of Ireland

And our second, brief, but very important greeting that I wish to read, comes from Michael D. Higgins, the President of the Republic of Ireland, which reads as follows:

Michael D Higgins, President of the Republic of Ireland, extends his best wishes for the commemoration concert for the beloved, departed son of Ireland, United States President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

And now, without further ado, I would like to introduce to you, the founder of the Schiller Institute, Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who will deliver some opening remarks. [applause]

Opening Remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder and President of the Schiller Institute, to Schiller Institute Concert of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, A Remembrance of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th Anniversary of His Death & A Recommitment to the Principles of His Presidency

Good evening.

I am highly honored to speak to you on the occasion of the performance of Mozart’s {Requiem} in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
That murder has turned out to be one of the most tragic events for the course of history, not only for the U.S., but for the world.

Because of that murder and its cover-up, it has turned hope, and a beautiful vision for the future and better conditions for all of mankind, into despair and a feeling of helplessness.
When, on the day after the assassination my English teacher came into the classroom bringing up the murder of the U.S. President, who had been in Berlin only a short time before, several of us students broke out in tears.

John F. Kennedy had a profound understanding for the role of great art, being as he put it, “close to the center of the nation’s purpose and a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.” How different would the world have been, and would be today, if he had lived and realized his ideas. In the famous speech in 1963 to the graduating class of the American University, only months after the world narrowly escaped from the possible extinction with the Cuban Missile Crisis. He talked about the possibility of world peace as the “most important topic on Earth.”

“What kind of peace do I mean?” he said. “What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on Earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”

That is the American spirit, which the whole world hopes will return.

In the same speech, he spoke about those who think that peace is impossible, that “war is inevitable, that mankind is doomed, and that we are gripped by forces we can’t control.”

Let us today make the solemn oath that we will end the paradigm of pessimism of the last 50 years, which have passed since his murder, and promise to future generations with his words:

“We need not accept that. Our problem problems are man-made — therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man’s reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable — and we believe they can do it again.”

 [applause]

Greetings from former U.S. Congressman Cornelius Gallagher to Schiller Institute Concert of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, A Remembrance of President John F. Kennedy on the 50th Anniversary of His Death & A Recommitment to the Principles of His Presidency. Former Congressman Neil Gallagher (N.J.) delivered the following comments via audio recording.

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