![]() “Every time Buddy suffered tragedy, trials, tribulations or tears, he got back up,” said Paolino. Paolino Jr., eulogized his onetime foe as an inspiration who proved throughout his life a remarkable resiliency and conviction to carry on. Mayor, as you now depart this city of man to return to the heavenly city of God, may you, may your soul, with the mercy of God, rest in peace.”įormer Providence mayor Joseph R. As the longest-serving mayor of this city of Providence, Buddy Cianci contributed much to this city. It is presumptuous, the reverend said, to judge any man’s life “solely by their faults.” Instead, “we look to their contribution to the common good. La Guardia, New York City’s mayor during the 1930s and 1940 who once said, “‘It makes no difference if I burn my bridges behind me, I never retreat.’ I think that captures Mayor Cianci in his grand quest to build a better city.” Healey went on to compare Cianci to Fiorello H. The remark - which seemed directed at Cianci’s spiteful streak - prompted a round of laughter. Healey, pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish, in East Greenwich, remarked that Cianci probably ordered the day’s weather so he could monitor which roads were being plowed “and which streets will never be plowed.” Tobin.Īt the start of his homily, the Rev. ![]() Peter and Paul for a Mass celebrated by nearly a dozen priests and presided over by Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. In the pelting snow of an advancing storm, several hundred friends and family members gathered at the Cathedral of SS. The city he held dear sent him off in splendid fashion Monday with a ceremony fringed with both somber moments and wry recognition of the ways of Providence’s longest-serving - and perhaps most complicated - mayor.Ĭianci, who held City Hall’s corner office for 21 years - his tenure twice interrupted by felony convictions and prison time - died Jan. He probably would have enjoyed the parade in his honor. ![]() once wrote in his memoir “parades are to politicians as blood is to Dracula.” The carriage driver, wearing a shawl of snow, pulled on the reins and the clopping white horses stopped in front of the Providence Performing Arts Center, its marquee illuminated in tribute.Īnd for a solemn moment Monday, as a bagpiper’s dirge filled Weybosset Street, the image of the man up there in lights seemed to be looking down on his own funeral procession.
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