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Amy Lynn Murray, soprano
Erica Joan Haman, mezzo-soprano
Steven Andrew Murray, tenor
Dorceal Duckens, bass

Schiller Institute Chorus & Orchestra
John Sigerson, Director

See Concert Program for Text and Translation

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Former U.S. Congressman Cornelius Gallagher represented the state of New Jersey in the House of Representatives from 1958 to 1972. Congressman Gallagher was a close personal friend of President Kennedy’s and an equally close political ally. He was the primary sponsor of the Peace Corps Act, on top of being responsible for the creation of the Freedom of Information Act, in his capacity as a member of the Congressional Privacy Subcommittee.

Congressman Gallagher was so close to President Kennedy, that he was asked to accompany the Speaker of the House to the airport on the day that the President was shot, to receive the coffin as it arrived back from Dallas. In an interview that he delivered earlier this year, Congressman Gallagher describes seeing Bobby Kennedy pacing, walking alone, crying all by himself, as he waited for the plane to come in. He walked over, and silently put his arm around Bobby, and he remembers him saying, “I don’t know what happened, but I know that old man’s hand is in this someplace,” referring to J. Edgar Hoover.

Gallagher went on, in later years, in his continuing courageous career in Congress, to challenge Hoover directly on the issue of government surveillance of American citizens. Congressman Gallagher is now 92 years of age, and he couldn’t make the trip down here from New Jersey, but he recorded an audio that he would like us to hear from him now. Directly after the audio, the music will begin.

Text of Congressman Neil Gallagher’s Comments at the Requiem Memorial for President John F. Kennedy

Former Congressman Neil Gallagher (N.J.) delivered the following comments via audio recording

I‘m delighted to participate with you in the Mozart Requiem celebrating the life of President John Kennedy. Just the mention of it, it seems like yesterday, rather than the 50 years that we now commemorate.

I was very fortunate in having time to know President Kennedy before he was President, and up until the time his unfortunate death occurred. He was a wonderful friend, he was a great leader; the question is whether or not he was a great President. Maybe his time was too short to evaluate the greatness of his Presidency at this point in history. Certainly he was a great man. Few men in history really are touched with greatness, which we all know to be a combination of many talents, wisdom, courage, knowledge, purpose and dedication, and understanding, and the compassion that he had in abundance. I think that showed early in his life when his boat was crashed into, and he went back, saving the lives of his crewmen rather than worrying about his own life. I think that was a sign of the kind of man that he was, and grew to be.

We live in difficult times now, and of course, we lived in difficult times then; they were perilous times – times where the powers had the most awesome weapons ever created by man, to destroy mankind. Kennedy had a feeling that we had to find ways of peace, to live with each other. In a land of plenty he sought an equal share, the good for all men, to aid the aged, to care for the ill, to educate the illiterate, to assist the under- privileged, to guarantee the constitutional rights of every citizen. Which I might say, are seriously under attack today, as we develop into this police state, that is not based on the hope that Kennedy gave. It is based on fear, and maybe the inability of America to participate in the kind of world that we now find ourselves.

As we look back at President Kennedy, his greatest contribution certainly, was providing hope to all of us. We were a generation that came out of the war. Whether you were a private or a five-star general, I think the common thread was that we all had a responsibility towards our country, and when we were needed, we filled that responsibility. I think that was a common thread that ran through America during the days of John Kennedy, and I think he symbolized that. We all looked up to him whether we agreed with him politically or not, people looked up to him. He represented what America was, that we all hoped it would be, and he was our leader. And I guess that was the real problem that occurred upon his death. Suddenly this vibrant, strong, good looking, intellectual man, our leader, was struck down in a matter of minutes. I think one of the things that we all shared then was our own mortality. And while he gave us the hope, the commonality of hope for all men, his death dashed our own view of life, and the need to participate in life, before our own mortality kicked in, as it did so suddenly with Jack Kennedy.

As we look upon the question of terrorism today, which is certainly a very serious condition in the world, but in those days, we had Communism and the Cold war, and the ability to destroy the entire world in a misjudgment by one of the leaders who possessed that power. I think Kennedy’s greatest contribution was showing that American would resist, could resist, and the ability to fight back intellectually to prevent such a war. I would really hope that in these days of the war on terror, that we would look at the strength of America, and try to find that common thread of our own courage, of our own desire, to find a peaceful way out of this war on terror, the effects of which are devastating to the rights and liberties of every citizen in the united Sates. Maybe it’s time to think of an international gathering to find out what really are the gripes around the world. To see whether or not we can bring reason and intellectual power to zero in on the problem, exactly the way that Jack Kennedy brought together those people in the world, his meeting with Khrushchov, the showing of the ability of America to resist, but also the ability of the United States to find reason, to perpetuate the human race on this earth.

So as we commemorate, and I want to certainly compliment your group on this Requiem, and as we celebrate the sadness of it all, I think it’s time to think about the good part of America, the good part that was in the days of the hope of John Kennedy, and hope that we can reinstate that hope for the young people in this country, so that the dream of Kennedy, of a free United States and the ability to participate and equality for all men and all people, I think is the dream that I believe will reawaken, as we also pass along our concern for the death of John Kennedy, a great man, a dear friend and someone that the American public would like to see stem from his death, the beginning of a new way of the American fight for its liberty, its freedom, and for the people of the United States, descended from that sad day in Dallas.

So once again, I thank you very much for inviting me to participate. I certainly have great admiration for the great work that you all do, and especially renewing the day of hope on the day that we commemorate the death of John Kennedy. And may we all find a way in peace; and the contribution that you all are making, certainly is leading the way in that direction.

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.

“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.”

[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.

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

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]