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Huge Crowd Needs Giant TV To See Funeral For Archbishop Coppenrath

Wednesday: August 20, 2008

(Tahitipresse)

The crowd attending Monday afternoon's church funeral service for former Papeete Archbishop Michel Coppenrath was so large that a giant television screen had to be installed outside.

Public and private officials along with the public attended the service at the Maria No Te Hau Catholic Church in Papeete's Mission neighborhood, paying their final respects to the 84-year-old religious leader who died Saturday of a ruptured aneurysm.

The crowd then attended burial services at the Priests' Cemetery.

During the church services, Papeete Archbishop Hubert Coppenrath said, "On behalf of my brother … I would like to thank everyone who sent their sympathy to Archbishop Michel Coppenrath." This was one of the rare occasions in the Catholic Church when Rome has named one brother to succeed another as archbishop.

The Maria No Te Hau Church was not big enough to hold all of those who came to say their final farewell to a man who spent 26 years serving as Papeete's archbishop.

Although retired since 1999, he remained active as archbishop emeritus and a priest.

The giant TV screen set up outside the church allowed the huge crowd to follow the funeral service, listening to the words of Archbishop Hubert Coppenrath as he talked about his brother. He noted his brother's constant determination. Before entering the priesthood, he joined the French resistance in France during World War II.

The Papeete-born future religious leader went to university in France, obtaining a civil law degree and a doctorate degree in canon law before returning to Tahiti to begin his long religious career.

As someone known throughout French Polynesia, Archbishop Michel Coppenrath was described by his brother as "an evangelist, a visionary and a man attentive to the people."

A eulogy was delivered by French Polynesia President Gaston Tong Sang, who began by saying, "Today, French Polynesia's Catholic community is in mourning." He paid tribute to the former archbishop as "a man who devoted his life to serving God and his fellow men."

Tracing his religious career that led to his 1973 appointment by the Catholic Church in Rome as Papeete's second archbishop, Tong Sang noted that upon his retirement in 1999 he returned to being a priest in Tahiti's west coast Commune of Punaauia.

"Michel Coppenrath, in the great evangelic tradition of your predecessors, you gave your life to the service of faith, the Catholic Church and its faithful, with full respect of man and other beliefs. Your righteousness and your openness, your broad culture, your natural authority and your love of others were unanimously appreciated in our 'country,’ but also among other churches in Oceania.

"A servant of God, but a lucid and vigilant citizen within our society, you helped to train our youth and build our 'country' with your always enlightened and wise advice," President Tong Sang said in his eulogy.

Expressing a "great sadness" on behalf of everyone present "to see you leave this world to which you have given so much", Tong Sang said Michel Coppenrath would "remain deep in our hearts and our memories as a great servant of God who has devoted his life to help his neighbor."
President Tong Sang concluded his eulogy by saying, "One last time, on behalf of everyone, I bow to your memory. Michel Coppenrath, we will never forget you."

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