MILITARY chaplain Deacon Gary Stone spoke directly to the children of killed Australian soldier Private Grant Kirby at his funeral at St Peter Chanel Church, The Gap, in Brisbane, on September 3.
During the funeral, Deacon Stone went down to Isabella, 10, and Madeleine, eight, to speak to them the words their father might wish to say to them.
“My beautiful children – I love you so very much. Don’t be upset that this has happened,” the deacon told the children.
“I have passed through death to the peace of heaven. But I am never more than a prayer away from you.”
Private Kirby’s former wife Edwina and other family members were also present.
Nearly 1000 people attended the military funeral of Private Kirby, 35, who died along with colleague Private Tomas Dale, 21, when a roadside bomb exploded in Afghanistan’s Baluchi Valley on August 20.
Both men were from the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment. Two other Australian soldiers were wounded in the incident.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott joined friends and family in commemorating his life at St Peter Chanel Catholic Church. Defence Minister John Faulkner and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh also attended.
A lone piper led six soldiers carrying Private Kirby’s coffin into the church.
Private Kirby was remembered as an “older brother” of 6RAR and Private Joe Thompson, who served with the soldier, paid tribute to him as the “brightest light in the darkest place”.
“I shared his last smile and last joke. He used humour to get through the tough times,” he said before giving Private Kirby’s family some assurances about his mate’s final moments.
Deacon Stone presided at the funeral with assistance from Catholic chaplain to 8/9RAR Deacon Peter Devenish-Meares and 7th Brigade co-ordinating chaplain Phil Wyle.
He later told The Catholic Leader it had been a “privilege to be asked to minister to Private Kirby’s very wide and extended family let alone the other 1000 people present”.
The deacon and military chaplain said a “poignant moment” had come after the funeral when “a soldier who had been with Grant when he died” came up and thanked him for his homily.
“The soldier asked me to pray for him and asked me to preside at his funeral should he be killed in the remaining six weeks he has to serve there after returning next week,” Deacon Stone said.
He also reminded Catholic civilians “there are no chapels or chaplains in the remote combat outposts these men patrol out from”.
“But God is in the faithful Christian men among them – in their weeping and in their daily work of peacemaking,” he said.
“We need to affirm them in that, and uphold them in daily prayer.”
To date, 21 Australian soldiers have died in the almost nine-year-old conflict.
