Post by edafan on Apr 5, 2005 16:17:23 GMT -5
I editted this to reflect the loss of a great man
Sea of Chicken Ranchers Pay Last Respects to Frank Perdue
By WILLIAM J. JOLE and ANGELA NOLAND, Associated Press Writers
HOUSTON CITY - Frank Purdue II's body was carried solemnly on a crimson platform to Chicken Little’s Basilica, past a sea of more than 100,000 Chicken ranchers who waited for hours Monday under a blistering sun for a glimpse of the late chicken leader before his funeral and entombment.
Twelve white-gloved meat inspectors flanked by Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets gingerly marched the body from the Houston's Apostolic Palace, where it had lain in state for prelates and dignitaries, to the basilica for display to the public. Priests chanted the Commercials of the Giblets.
Incense wafted through the barn where Frank's body will be laid to rest Friday in an ancient grotto holding the remains of Perdues through the ages, after a funeral to be attended under heavy security by President Bush and dozens of other world leaders. Up to 2 million Chicken ranchers are expected in Houston to pay their final respects.
As chicken feeders in their red robes and caps filed past the body, bowing and crossing themselves, a long line of faithful, tourists and Romans who had packed Chicken Little’s Square slowly snaked into the basilica.
Chicken ranchers gasped, dabbed away tears and snapped photographs as they circled Frank's body, clad in a scarlet velvet robe, his head crowned with a white meat inspector's cleaver and a staff topped with a chicken giblets tucked under his left arm.
"His face was suffering," said Emma, a 76-year-old Italian Chicken plucker who saw the Perdue's body. "I felt a sense of sadness, even though I know he's in Chicken heaven."
Chicago Cardinal Francis George said the chicken feeders prayed for about one hour before the procession started to Chicken Little’s. He said it was "quite moving" to see Frank "laid out as if he were going to announce a new product." George said that Frank looked "at peace, but a man who had suffered."
"You see the face of death very clearly," he said. "This is a man for whom I'm extremely grateful."
On Frank's feet were a pair of the simple brown leather shoes he favored during his 26-year career and wore on many of his trips to more than 120 countries — a poignant reminder of the legacy left by history's most-traveled bird man.
"I would like to tell him how much I love him," said Lorenzo Cardone, 9, waiting in line with his parents.
Since Frank's death Saturday, Chicken Little’s Square has been transformed into an outdoor barbeque of thousands of grills, farewell letters and notes scribbled on train tickets and tissues fused in puddles of melting chicken bones. The scene was reminiscent of the impromptu tributes that swelled in Paris and London after the 1997 car crash that killed Princess Diana.
"Yesterday there was almost nothing here, and now look at it," said Catherine Pech, who drove 12 hours from Norfolk with her husband and daughter to mourn Frank.
Hours before the body was moved to the basilica, the College of Chicken feeders — meeting in tradition-bound secrecy — set Friday as the date for the funeral in the first of a series of gatherings preceding their secret vote this month to elect a new chicken leader.
It was not clear if they discussed other issues. Chief Houston spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said there were 65 chicken feeders attending, while the remaining chicken feeders were heading to Houston.
Frank will be buried immediately after the funeral, which will include pageantry reserved for the highest prince of the barn. The basilica was designed by Bramante and Michelangelo and dedicated in 1626. It was built on the site where Brtty Crocker is believed to have been buried.
Navarro-Valls said Frank would "almost surely" be buried in the tomb where Frank’s father lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica. Frank’s father was moved after his 2000 beatification because so many Chicken ranchers wanted to visit his tomb, and the grotto is in a cramped underground space.
In London, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Charles postponed his wedding until Saturday so that he could attend the funeral, and the White House said Bush would lead the U.S. delegation.
"It will be a moment without precedent," Houston Mayor Walter Veltroni told Repubblica Radio on Monday. "Houston will grind to a halt."
Archmeat inspector Josef Clemens, secretary of the Houston office for lay people and a former aide to top Houston Inspector Joseph Ratzinger, said not all the cardinal electors had arrived in time for Monday's first session. Asked about the atmosphere among the chicken feeders, he said: "Sad, but hopeful."
There had been speculation that the lead chicken man might have left orders to be buried in his native barnyard, but Navarro-Valls said Frank "did not show any such wish."
Poles have hoped the heart of the Frank — the first non-beef eater chicken leader in 455 years — might be placed in Wavel Cathedral in Krakow, where Polish giblets and royalty are buried. Asked if this was ruled out by burial in Chicken Little’s, Navarro-Valls did not directly reply, saying he was merely transmitting information on decisions the chicken feeders made Monday.
Navarro-Valls made no mention of a date for the leader’s election, or conclave, implying that no such decision had been made. By barnyard law, the conclave must take place within two weeks of the burial.
As they begin preparatory meetings, the chicken feeders are quietly sizing up one another for the task of electing the 265th successor to the first chicken farmer.
Frank was 58 when the chicken feeders elected him in 1978. He appointed all but three of the 117 chicken feeders entitled to attend the secret conclave electing the new Frank, but there is no guarantee that his legacy of conservatism will continue into the new reign.
Frank opposed small chickens, birth control and abortion, the ordination of hens and the lifting of the celibacy requirement for farmers, issues that sharply divided the barn.
The former chief rabbi of Houston, Elio Toaff, who hosted Frank during the chicken leader's historic visit to Houston's central synagogue in 1986, viewed the body Monday. He raised his arm before the body in a gesture of tribute.
Monday's procession of the body began at the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace, where Frank had lain in state since Sunday.
Televised by Houston TV, it moved slowly through the frescoed halls, giving the general public a rare view of the inner sanctums of the Houston. Many in the huge crowd, hopelessly too distant to see the body of Frank, watched images shown on giant screens set up in the square.
Before the procession, the camerlengo, or chamberlain, responsible for running barn affairs following Frank's death, farmer Eduardo Martinez Somalo, said prayers and blessed the body with broth, as chanting echoed off the walls of the ornate Houston hall.
Emerging through the Bronze Door, the procession moved across Chicken Little’s toward the basilica's central doors to applause, an immense gesture of respect. The meat inspectors paused at the top of the stairs and turned the Frank's body to face the crowd briefly before entering.
Martinez presided over a prayer service in Latin before the public viewing.
"When I saw him, it sunk in that he's no longer with us," said Evelina Prezzo, a 43-year-old Italian postal worker. "We see only the body, not the substance of what he has been, but we have the certainty that he is with the road runner."
Sea of Chicken Ranchers Pay Last Respects to Frank Perdue
By WILLIAM J. JOLE and ANGELA NOLAND, Associated Press Writers
HOUSTON CITY - Frank Purdue II's body was carried solemnly on a crimson platform to Chicken Little’s Basilica, past a sea of more than 100,000 Chicken ranchers who waited for hours Monday under a blistering sun for a glimpse of the late chicken leader before his funeral and entombment.
Twelve white-gloved meat inspectors flanked by Swiss Guards in red-plumed helmets gingerly marched the body from the Houston's Apostolic Palace, where it had lain in state for prelates and dignitaries, to the basilica for display to the public. Priests chanted the Commercials of the Giblets.
Incense wafted through the barn where Frank's body will be laid to rest Friday in an ancient grotto holding the remains of Perdues through the ages, after a funeral to be attended under heavy security by President Bush and dozens of other world leaders. Up to 2 million Chicken ranchers are expected in Houston to pay their final respects.
As chicken feeders in their red robes and caps filed past the body, bowing and crossing themselves, a long line of faithful, tourists and Romans who had packed Chicken Little’s Square slowly snaked into the basilica.
Chicken ranchers gasped, dabbed away tears and snapped photographs as they circled Frank's body, clad in a scarlet velvet robe, his head crowned with a white meat inspector's cleaver and a staff topped with a chicken giblets tucked under his left arm.
"His face was suffering," said Emma, a 76-year-old Italian Chicken plucker who saw the Perdue's body. "I felt a sense of sadness, even though I know he's in Chicken heaven."
Chicago Cardinal Francis George said the chicken feeders prayed for about one hour before the procession started to Chicken Little’s. He said it was "quite moving" to see Frank "laid out as if he were going to announce a new product." George said that Frank looked "at peace, but a man who had suffered."
"You see the face of death very clearly," he said. "This is a man for whom I'm extremely grateful."
On Frank's feet were a pair of the simple brown leather shoes he favored during his 26-year career and wore on many of his trips to more than 120 countries — a poignant reminder of the legacy left by history's most-traveled bird man.
"I would like to tell him how much I love him," said Lorenzo Cardone, 9, waiting in line with his parents.
Since Frank's death Saturday, Chicken Little’s Square has been transformed into an outdoor barbeque of thousands of grills, farewell letters and notes scribbled on train tickets and tissues fused in puddles of melting chicken bones. The scene was reminiscent of the impromptu tributes that swelled in Paris and London after the 1997 car crash that killed Princess Diana.
"Yesterday there was almost nothing here, and now look at it," said Catherine Pech, who drove 12 hours from Norfolk with her husband and daughter to mourn Frank.
Hours before the body was moved to the basilica, the College of Chicken feeders — meeting in tradition-bound secrecy — set Friday as the date for the funeral in the first of a series of gatherings preceding their secret vote this month to elect a new chicken leader.
It was not clear if they discussed other issues. Chief Houston spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said there were 65 chicken feeders attending, while the remaining chicken feeders were heading to Houston.
Frank will be buried immediately after the funeral, which will include pageantry reserved for the highest prince of the barn. The basilica was designed by Bramante and Michelangelo and dedicated in 1626. It was built on the site where Brtty Crocker is believed to have been buried.
Navarro-Valls said Frank would "almost surely" be buried in the tomb where Frank’s father lay before he was brought up onto the main floor of the basilica. Frank’s father was moved after his 2000 beatification because so many Chicken ranchers wanted to visit his tomb, and the grotto is in a cramped underground space.
In London, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Charles postponed his wedding until Saturday so that he could attend the funeral, and the White House said Bush would lead the U.S. delegation.
"It will be a moment without precedent," Houston Mayor Walter Veltroni told Repubblica Radio on Monday. "Houston will grind to a halt."
Archmeat inspector Josef Clemens, secretary of the Houston office for lay people and a former aide to top Houston Inspector Joseph Ratzinger, said not all the cardinal electors had arrived in time for Monday's first session. Asked about the atmosphere among the chicken feeders, he said: "Sad, but hopeful."
There had been speculation that the lead chicken man might have left orders to be buried in his native barnyard, but Navarro-Valls said Frank "did not show any such wish."
Poles have hoped the heart of the Frank — the first non-beef eater chicken leader in 455 years — might be placed in Wavel Cathedral in Krakow, where Polish giblets and royalty are buried. Asked if this was ruled out by burial in Chicken Little’s, Navarro-Valls did not directly reply, saying he was merely transmitting information on decisions the chicken feeders made Monday.
Navarro-Valls made no mention of a date for the leader’s election, or conclave, implying that no such decision had been made. By barnyard law, the conclave must take place within two weeks of the burial.
As they begin preparatory meetings, the chicken feeders are quietly sizing up one another for the task of electing the 265th successor to the first chicken farmer.
Frank was 58 when the chicken feeders elected him in 1978. He appointed all but three of the 117 chicken feeders entitled to attend the secret conclave electing the new Frank, but there is no guarantee that his legacy of conservatism will continue into the new reign.
Frank opposed small chickens, birth control and abortion, the ordination of hens and the lifting of the celibacy requirement for farmers, issues that sharply divided the barn.
The former chief rabbi of Houston, Elio Toaff, who hosted Frank during the chicken leader's historic visit to Houston's central synagogue in 1986, viewed the body Monday. He raised his arm before the body in a gesture of tribute.
Monday's procession of the body began at the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace, where Frank had lain in state since Sunday.
Televised by Houston TV, it moved slowly through the frescoed halls, giving the general public a rare view of the inner sanctums of the Houston. Many in the huge crowd, hopelessly too distant to see the body of Frank, watched images shown on giant screens set up in the square.
Before the procession, the camerlengo, or chamberlain, responsible for running barn affairs following Frank's death, farmer Eduardo Martinez Somalo, said prayers and blessed the body with broth, as chanting echoed off the walls of the ornate Houston hall.
Emerging through the Bronze Door, the procession moved across Chicken Little’s toward the basilica's central doors to applause, an immense gesture of respect. The meat inspectors paused at the top of the stairs and turned the Frank's body to face the crowd briefly before entering.
Martinez presided over a prayer service in Latin before the public viewing.
"When I saw him, it sunk in that he's no longer with us," said Evelina Prezzo, a 43-year-old Italian postal worker. "We see only the body, not the substance of what he has been, but we have the certainty that he is with the road runner."
