5. “If Thou Livest…”
Since JFK was Catholic, a local parish was summoned to perform the church’s Last Rites. Meanwhile, the world had been receiving few updates on Kennedy’s condition, and no one from the outside knew that the president was deceased.
Soon, Father Oscar Huber arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital and was led into Trauma Room One. The president’s body was already covered in a white sheet. “I didn’t speak to him”, Huber described later, “it was clear he couldn’t answer”. The priest pulled down the sheet a little bit, and that’s how he saw the gaping head wound and fixed eyes. At that moment, he knew JFK was dead.
However, it was unfathomable for him to refuse to perform the last Rites on a recently deceased president. So Huber began his blessing: “If thou livest…” After performing the rite, he comforted Jackie, reassuring her that her husband’s spirit hadn’t yet left his body.
Despite Secret Service warnings to be discreet, Huber became one of the first unofficial sources to confirm JFK’s death. Though the priest denied it afterward, a Time Magazine interviewer reported Huber stating “He’s dead” to an inquiry about the president’s status.
6 Responses
It is so sad the first a Great President was assassinated , and that his would be killer killed, so that no one would really know who was responsible for this tragedy even after all these years
Regardless of circumstances these many years later, still the biggest travesty in our wonderful country’s history. Beyond sad…power politics greed and ultimately murder of one of the most caring and brilliant man in the world. Johnson really wanted that Presidency and look what he did. Despicable.
How can we believe any of this when you don’t even know the date that he was killed?
I was in class at St. Patrick elementary school when Sister Angela came in and told us of the horror!
Thank you for this information that i am pretty sure no one really knew That was a day that I REMEMBER WAS HORRIBLE. That was a day for History and it was History.
i REMEMBER THAT DAY LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY. The next 3 days were like everyone in the world was surrounded by fog. The TV proceedings were in Black and White because the colored TVs were very expensive. I really truly believe that it was the first time in my life that the TV stations were on all night. Back then most stations were only broadcasting until 1:00 am. It had just been a few months earlier that we had all as families gathered to watch the intervention of the US and Russia deal in Cuba. Tensions were high, and almost everybody we knew had thought that the assassination was directly related to the Cuba incident. Tensions were high and everyone thought we were going to go into a nuclear war with Russian. I had read a story later in life that in fact it had almost happened, but there was a senator from I believe North Dakota that had a cooler prevailing thought, and he along had saved the earth from nuclear devastation. Trying times for a man who loved by many, many Americans and still to this day.