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June 25, 2006
Rev. Lionel P. Honoré, S.J., an associate professor of French at the College, died June 25 in Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, at 71.
 Fr. Honoré, who had joined the Holy Cross faculty in 1975, taught in the department of modern languages and literatures for 30 years. A Ford, Fulbright and Woodrow Wilson fellow—as well as a Martin Luther King scholar—he had been a recipient of the New York University Founders Day Award for excellence in scholarship. In 2000, Fr. Honoré was awarded the Swords Faculty Medal for 25 years of service at Holy Cross.
Earning his bachelor’s degree at Xavier University, New Orleans, in 1956, he pursued his master’s degree the following year at the University of Wisconsin. Fr. Honoré received his Ph.D. in 1973 from New York University.
At the start of his career, he had taught at Jesuit High School in El Paso, Texas, from 1962-65; from 1973-75, he served in ministry at Loyola University, New Orleans.
Entering the Society of Jesus at St. Charles College, Grand Coteau, La., on Aug. 14, 1958, Fr. Honoré pursued philosophical studies at Spring Hill College in Alabama; he began theological studies at St. Mary’s in Kansas and completed them at the Weston School of Theology in Massachusetts.
Fr. Honoré was ordained to the priesthood on June 8, 1968, by the late auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, Louis Abel Caillouet.
He is survived by two nieces; and many cousins.
Following is an excerpt from the homily given by Rev. Vincent A. Lapomarda, S.J., Holy Cross associate professor of history, at Fr. Honoré’s funeral Mass, celebrated in St. Joseph Memorial Chapel on June 28:
For Father Lionel, life has changed, not ended, and he has escaped in death all the shadows of this earthly life by entering the bright dawn of eternal life. We now pray that he is achieving that goal for which he entered into the Society of Jesus and that he is enjoying eternal life with all those relatives, especially his father and mother and sister, and all those friends that have gone before him, and yes, even with those great operatic stars who sang the music that was the consolation and joy of his life.
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