Pope sends tribute to ‘generous service’ of Peter Sutherland at Dublin funeral

A message from the pontiff was read at his funeral in Dublin where mourners were told of his passionate devotion to refugees, his hidden generosity and his moral compass.

Mr Sutherland died on Sunday morning at the age of 71 following a long illness.

A long career in law, government and business culminated in his appointment as the UN’s special representative on migration, a role he held as the migrant and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean reached unprecedented levels.

Mr Sutherland was also an adviser to the Holy See.

Pope Francis extended his condolences in a message to the family through his Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“With deep appreciation for Mr Sutherland’s dedicated assistance to the Holy See, mindful of his many years generous service to the international community, especially in the support of migrants, His Holiness entrusts his soul to the merciful love of our heavenly father,” the letter said.

Hundreds of mourners joined widow Maruja, sons Shane and Ian, daughter Natalia, other relatives and a list of dignitaries, political and business figures for the mass in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook.

Fr Noel Barber, a teacher in Gonzaga College where Mr Sutherland went to school in the 1960s, paid a glowing tribute.

“This may seem strange to say of one who had Peter’s ambition, wealth, prestige and power in high places. Yet it was his faith and the practice of his faith that gave him his moral compass,” he said.

Fr Barber said Mr Sutherland carried out countless acts of hidden generosity with his extensive philanthropy known to relatively few people.

“Then there was his passionate devotion to the cause of refugees that the Vatican and the UN called on and that passion came from a deep religious consciousness,” the priest said.

But Fr Barber said Mr Sutherland’s enthusiasm for using globalisation to reduce poverty and counter nationalism may have blurred his view of its downside.

Among those paying respects were President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, former taoiseach Enda Kenny, Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin, businessman Denis O’Brien and former Ireland rugby captain Keith Wood.

Judge Garrett Sheehan, a lifelong friend, described Mr Sutherland as a proud Irishman, European and an internationalist whose career was fulfilled in his UN role.

“No longer on any board he found his truest and most complete voice in this work,” he told mourners.

Mr Sutherland was appointed attorney general in 1981, aged only 35, in the Fine Gael-Labour coalition, the first of two spells in the job.

He clashed with the Government in 1983 of the wording of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, a contentious issue to this day.

He was described in some circles as a “father of globalisation” having promoted free trade and competition while in the European Commission and subsequently the World Trade Organisation.

In business he was non-executive chairman of both Goldman Sachs and BP and chairman of Allied Irish Banks.

Mr Sutherland was buried in Kilternan Cemetery.