Hundreds gathered at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester on Monday to say goodbye to Bishop Emeritus Matthew Clark.
The funeral Mass for Clark, who died just over a week ago, after a period of declining health following his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2019, was officiated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York.
The two men were friends since the 1970s, when then-Father Matthew Clark was a spiritual director at the North American College in Rome, Italy.
Dolan recalled how Clark had coached him in following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
“If I could remain in his love, then see, you told me,” said Dolan, “I could lead other people to that insight to bask in that love and move their hearts.”
And Dolan drew a few laughs when he recounted another memory of Clark when he was his spiritual director.
``He would repeatedly encourage me in that soothing voice, sometimes barely above a whisper, while always smoking a Pall Mall...you didn’t know him then.”
Clark, who died at the age of 85, was Rochester’s second longest serving Bishop, fulfilling that role for 33 years. He retired in 2012. He was interred at the bishop’s crypt at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester.
