On a morning so warm it belied the calendar’s designation of the third day of autumn, Monsignor John V. Sheridan was eulogized on Friday at a Requiem Mass presided over by Los Angeles Diocese Archbishop Roger Mahony. Sheridan died Sept. 17 of heart failure. He had been in critical condition since Aug. 25, when he was involved in a car crash that killed Sister Mary Campbell and injured Pepperdine University law professor and U.S. Ambassador to Malta Douglas Kmiec.
Remembered as a man of uncommon compassion and livelong devotion to faith, OLM pastor Father Bill Kerze said, “What was that great secret that Monsignor Sheridan knew that caused us all to flock to him, whether saint or sinner, political or ecclesiastical figure? I think it was an awareness that life was God’s most precious gift. And the only possible response is gratitude.”
An estimated 700 people were in attendance, sitting under a large white tent in the OLM parking lot. Sheridan will be buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.
-Melonie Magruder