Donna Morrissey had one more message to put out there: heed the warnings about the coronavirus.
“Please, please please take it seriously — our lives depend on it,” Morrissey, the onetime face of the Boston archdiocese during its sexual abuse scandals, implored people, according to her friend George Regan.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Regan, a local public relations giant, paid tribute to her in the cavernous Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End, where the masks mourners were wearing didn’t quite hide the tears on her loved ones’ faces. Those in attendance spread throughout the ornate church in an effort to avoid the virus that took Morrissey’s life.
Regan described his close friend as a kind but tough woman of faith.
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: George Regan of Regan Communications gives words of remembrance during funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Cardinal Sean O'Malley addresses mourners during funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Mourners gather for the funeral services of Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: George Regan of Regan Communications gives words of remembrance during funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: A mourner touches the casket of Donna Morrissey during funeral services for Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: George Regan of Regan Communications gives words of remembrance during funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: A mourner touches the casket of Donna Morrissey during funeral services for Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Donna Morrissey wipes away tears during funeral services for her daughter Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: George Regan of Regan Communications touches the casket of Donna Morrissey after giving words of remembrance during funeral services for Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Bishop Mark O'Connell addresses mourners gathered for the funeral services of Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: A mourner wipes away tears during the funeral services of Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Bishop Mark O'Connell addresses mourners gathered for the funeral services of Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: A Boston police Department Gaelic Column bagpiper plays during funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Mourners look on as the Red Cross holds a rolling tribute before the funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: Mourners look on as the Red Cross holds a rolling tribute before funeral services for Donna Morrissey at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
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BOSTON, MA: May 28, 2020: The casket of Donna Morrissey is carried into the Cathedral of the Holy Cross before her funeral services in Boston, Massachusetts. Morrissey passed away due to Coronavirus. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
“Donna never received the credit she deserved for helping put the church back on course,” Regan said. “She never walked away from immense, immense pressure for her position. Donna proved to be an immovable force for good.”
Morrissey, a former TV journalist, is most widely known for her work at the Boston Archdiocese. From 2001 to 2003, she served as then-Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law’s cabinet secretary for public relations and communications at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal. She took some flak early on for brushing off the initial inquiries into the archdiocese’s wrongdoing, but was widely credited for grace under pressure and accessibility in the following year before she left the job.
“In the midst of evil, Donna was a force for good,” Bishop Mark O’Connell, who said he knew Morrissey for years, said in the church on Thursday.
O’Malley, the current archbishop of Boston, described Morrissey as “such a talented, compassionate, humanitarian woman” and said she’ll be sorely missed.
For the past 17 years, Morrissey worked as spokeswoman for the East Division of American Red Cross Blood Services. The Red Cross honored her with a procession to the church on Thursday.
She had begun her career in television news, working first as a freelance assignment editor at WCVB-TV and then as nightside assignment manager at WBZ-TV. She then worked for Regan at his PR shop before moving to the archdiocese.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3ceMMsl
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