86 Main Street, P.O. Box 305,  Norfolk, Massachusetts 02056  (508) 528- 0170

HomeMass ScheduleStaffReligious EducationSacramentsMinistriesWeekly Bulletin
Directions / MapNews / Photo GallerySpecial Parish EventsParish HistoryLinks

Norfolk Army Soldier Killed In Iraq Laid To Rest 

  NORFOLK - Cold rain fell as family and friends gathered at St. Jude’s Church yesterday morning to bid farewell to 25-year-old Sgt. Adam Kennedy, killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq on Easter Sunday.
    A horse-drawn caisson delivered the soldier’s casket to the church, following a procession down Main Street that passed under an American flag suspended between the extended ladders of two Norfolk Fire Department trucks.
Military and police personnel were among the capacity crowd, along with Gov. Deval Patrick and state Sens. Scott Brown and Richard Ross.
    During a nearly 90-minute funeral Mass, mourners often dabbed their eyes and leaned against one another.
    Monsignor Peter Conley, the church’s pastor, called Kennedy’s loss “a test of faith.”
    “Let it not be whispered, let it not be thought, that Adam Kennedy died in vain,” Conley said. “He did not. This is a man who kept his promise . . . and his promise was to us.”

    Colin Kennedy, the youngest of Kennedy’s four siblings, was among the speakers. “Adam was probably my best friend and also my hero,” he said. “He went out and lived his childhood dream.”

 

Colin Kennedy kisses the casket of his older brother, Army Sgt. Adam Kennedy, at Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton, following funeral services in Norfolk. Sgt. Kennedy was killed on Easter Sunday in Iraq.
 
   After graduating from Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood in 2000, Kennedy enrolled in the Corps of Cadets at Norwich University, a private military school in Vermont. He graduated in 2004 and joined the Army.
    The distinguished honor graduate of his boot camp class, Kennedy was assigned to the Army’s Fourth Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, out of Alaska. He was deployed to Iraq in October.
    “He was determined to reach his goal and all along the way he was making sacrifices for something he was passionate about,” friends of Kennedy’s reflected in a group reading at the service.
     Kennedy was laid to rest at Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton.

This article originally appeared here.

Home l Mass Schedule l Staff l Religious Education l Sacraments l Ministries l Weekly Bulletin
Directions / Map l News / Photo Gallery l Special Parish Events l Parish History l Links