Br. Gregory Conant, R.I.P.

My grand readers, your sorrowful Peasant wishes
to announce the passing of a truly God and country
gentleman. A loyal servant of God, a staunch patriot,
and a beloved family member, my cousin Br. Gregory
Conant, passed away peacefully after several years of
declining health in Still River, Massachusetts on July 23
at the age of 87.

Having received the calling to serve as a monk when he
was sixteen years of age, Brother Gregory also had a great
love of country. He first enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard a
year later, concealing his true age, then followed this stint with
enlistment in the U.S. Army, serving in Korea during the
war there as a communications specialist. Never a fan of
communism, he came to loathe it even more as a result
of his experiences in the Korean War, seeing the devastation
and misery it had wreaked upon the Korean people. After
his military service, he then began his training for his
holy vocation.

A proud conservative, both politically and religiously,
and staunchly pro-life, Brother Gregory was an activist
on all these fronts, making both friends and enemies
with his outspokenness and forthrightness. Your proud
Peasant was in agreement with Brother Gregory on
every subject but one: he would constantly badger me to
enter the seminary and become a priest or a brother.
It was an issue on which we had more discussions than I
can recall, and had clashed rather heatedly on a few times
as well. But in the end, my cousin acknowledged my need
to go in the direction I felt compelled to go, to establish
and maintain a career in business while devoting time to
politics as well, and we remained close friends as well as
close relatives in the years that passed. And now my
dear cousin has passed as well.

Bold, forthright, redoubtable, passionate, outspoken,
irrepressible, and unapologetic, Brother Gregory was
an advocate for his faith, his country, and the improvement
of the human condition --- spiritually, physically, and
morally. Would that we had public servants with his
courage, his conviction, and his outspokenness.
Come to think of it, the Catholic Church could use a few
more hearty souls like my cousin as well.

Rest in peace, Brother Gregory. We'll see each other again
when I'm called up yonder.


MEM