In a time of national mourning after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963, one of the most touching remembrances was penned by one of the young president’s staunchest political opponents.
Fellow Catholic William F. Buckley described Kennedy in the Dec. 31, 1963, issue of National Review magazine as: “A man so intensely charming, whose personal vigor and robust enjoyment of life so invigorated all who beheld him. Even his most adamant political opponents acknowledged the personal courage Mr. Kennedy showed during his young and dazzling lifetime.”
The life of the first Catholic president is forever linked to Virginia and the small country church in Middleburg where Kennedy attended Mass for the last time with his family Nov. 10, 1963. The family spent weekends at Glen Ora estate in Middleburg from 1961-63, then at Wexford, the home designed by the First Lady. They would only enjoy it for two weekends.
“The origin of the church is contingent upon the former president’s decision to spend some quality time with his free time in Middleburg,” said Father Christopher D. Murphy, pastor of St. Stephen since 2014. “He acquiesced to his wife’s desire for the children to be familiar with the horse culture that she had growing up, so they spent weekends in Middleburg and that prompted the church to be built.”
Before St. Stephen was built, Mass was celebrated at the Middleburg Community Center. But according to Father Murphy, Kennedy, who suffered from Addison’s Disease and debilitating back pain, was uncomfortable sitting in a folding chair.
Father Murphy marvels at how quickly the church was constructed. “He was elected in ’60, and the movement for the church got started in ’61,” he said. “They opened the doors in April 1963 so that’s pretty rapid. Some people come here and are surprised when they see it. They wonder if this had been a Presbyterian church before, but the design was simple and that was intentional because it looks like a typical Virginia country church.”
Three photos capturing the Kennedys on the two occasions they attended Mass at St. Stephen are displayed on church walls. No children are present in the two brilliant color images taken Oct. 27, 1963, with the first couple arriving, then leaving together.
“We have the pew where he sat,” said Father Murphy. “It’s in the middle of the church today and that’s interesting because at the time he was sitting in the last pew, not just because of his back issues, but the fact was that the Secret Service wanted to sit immediately behind him with no one else behind.”
The “safe room” with the special phone jack installed by the Secret Service remains next to the narthex. “They needed a room for the president to wait in case of emergency,” said Father Murphy, who took care to preserve the original phone jack. “That room functions as an usher’s closet today and there’s nothing extraordinary that stands out, but at the time it did have tinted, bulletproof glass windows.”
In contrast to the striking color photographs of two weeks before, the black-and-white image of the Kennedys arriving for Mass Nov. 10, 1963, is haunting. With three Secret Service agents surrounding the presidential limousine in the background, the president appears somber looking into the camera, holding 5-year-old Caroline’s hand as Jacqueline and 2-year-old John Jr. trail behind.
Before his final Mass, Kennedy was given a missal by Father Albert Pereira, pastor of St. Stephen. Twelve days later that missal was used to swear in Lyndon B. Johnson as president on board Air Force One. He was flanked by the First Lady in her bloodstained dress.
“There was an eagerness to have President Johnson sworn in as soon as possible,” said Father Murphy. “There was no Bible on the plane. They found President Kennedy’s missal and it was upon that that President Johnson was sworn in.”
One can still feel the heavy weight of history at the unpretentious church where Father Murphy has been vigilant to preserve its connection to the past. “I’ve been very mindful of that when renovating,” he said. “We wanted to bring some of the appointments up to date and more in line with church instructions such as a stone altar and I restored the confessionals as I found it very difficult to work as a priest without one. But all the while I had to be very cognizant of those who recall the time when the president attended and to not change the decor to the point where it would look discordant with that era.”
Partisan politics aside, Father Murphy said that all Catholics are indebted to America’s first Catholic president.
“Despite his own failings or personal piety, he was instrumental in leading the way for so many of the privileges that we Catholics take for granted in our nation today,” he said. “In the colonial days of Virginia, Catholics could not even participate in the electoral process. It was the goal of Catholics to overcome that, and it was Kennedy who completed it.”
The church on Sam Fred Road still looks much the same as it did in 1963. You can stand in the same place where the dark-suited secret service agents, the photographers with their big cameras, and the women with their stylish hats and headscarves, all fixed their eyes on the handsome couple, leaving church together on a sunny day in October.
