"But it was always such a joy to be with you, and as I walk around the church, there is a story or many stories behind every person that's here in the church. I was blessed that you invited me into the inner sanctum of your lives."
Danielle Pryor, 13, sang "When I Look at You" for Father Ed at the Mass. When she won a scholarship to Settlement Music School, Father Ed persuaded a friend in Cherry Hill to donate a piano and deliver it to her home so she could practice.
Father Ed provided spiritual and emotional comfort to Kevin Gray after he nearly died in a motorcycle accident. Gray became deeply involved in St. Martin de Porres after that, and saw that Father Ed, a white man, really did care about people regardless of their skin color.
Gray, 43, spoke at the farewell Mass. "Every young man in here, black, white, brown, whatever color, this is what you need to aspire to. Right here."
He pointed at Father Ed.
Crystal Brown sat near the front, crying. A victim of sexual abuse, she has two children with a genetic disease. Father Ed found a benefactor on the Main Line to donate $50,000 for a wheelchair-accessible van so Brown could drive her children to the hospital.
Father Ed has supported Brown in her bleakest, loneliest moments.
"He changed my life," she said. "He made me believe that all men are not bad."
Perhaps Father Ed's biggest contribution is what he did for the parish school. He teamed with Sister Nancy Fitzgerald, the principal, and created a refuge. He helped raise more than a half-million dollars a year to put the school on an independent financial footing, building up an endowment and a board of committed supporters. Sister Nancy knows he often shelled out tuition from his own pocket rather than turn a child away.
