Who is Father Frank O’Grady? Joe Biden breaks down as he meets priest who read Beau his last rites
COUNTY MAYO, IRELAND: President Joe Biden reportedly broke down in tears after meeting retired army chaplain Father Frank O'Grady during his visit to the Knock Shrine in Ireland on Friday, April 14. The emotional moment came after the US president learned that the priest who read his late son Beau’s last rites was working at the venue. “He was crying, it really affected him and then we said a prayer, said a decade of the rosary for his family,” Father Richard Gibbons told the BBC. “He lit a candle and then he took a moment or two of private for prayer,” he added.
“It just so happened, that we have working at the shrine here the chaplain who gave the last rites, the last anointing, to his son in the United States,” Gibbons explained. “He got the shock of his life, to come over, so that was a wonderful spontaneous thing that happened. He wanted to meet him straight away, he dispatched a secret service agent to go and find him,” the priest mentioned. In addition to his emotional meeting with Father O’Grady, President Biden also visited the Mayo Hospice where a plaque was placed to honor Beau, who died in 2015.
What is known about Father Frank O’Grady?
Father Frank O’Grady is a retired US Army chaplain, who served at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and received the Army Commendation Medal for “exceptional meritorious service” for his work in the wake of the September 11 attack on the Pentagon. The chaplain hails from Gurteen, County Sligo, and is remembered for his leadership, dedication to duty and calm professional demeanor during a time of severe extreme crisis, the Irish America magazine noted.
O’Grady came to the diocese of Paterson, New Jersey from Ireland in 1978 and joined the army in 1994. He spent several days and numerous hours in the Pentagon in the wake of the attack and worked to honor the victims by escorting out their final remains. He also spent a large amount of time with survivors and families of the victims. “We did a lot of work with the families. It was not possible to notify families that their loved ones were dead even though they may have been confirmed missing until DNA testing was complete. That could take up to seven weeks,” he told the magazine from his base in Virginia.
The chaplain also said that he was assigned to the 12-hour night shift at the venue in the wake of the tragedy. “They asked me to take care of the mortuary section of the operation. There were four groups of soldiers, of about ten soldiers each, who were bringing out remains from the mortuary,” he mentioned. O’Grady and a Protestant minister prayed over the remains while soldiers lowered their stretchers during the recovery operations. The priest also did tours of duty in Honduras, Germany, and Korea, among others, in the past.
President Biden was accompanied by his sister and son
President Biden visited the Knock Shrine on the final day of his four-day Ireland trip. Father Richard Gibbons, the parish priest, and rector helped him tour the basilica shrine. As it started to rain Father Gibbons was seen holding an umbrella for the president. Biden’s sister Valerie Biden Owens and son Hunter, who accompanied him at every stop on the trip, were also present at the shrine.
The group briefly halted at a square block of the old stone allowing the president to lay his hand on the spot of the original gable wall of the church. Crowds gathered to look at the president near the shrine, with a prominent sign reading, “Welcome Home Joe,” the Daily Mail noted. The president also gave a speech to the Irish general assembly and said “I’m at home” while addressing the Irish parliament.