MONTREAT, N.C. (CNS) — The Rev. Billy Graham, a fiery Baptist preacher who was easily the most famous evangelist of the 20th century and for decades one of the world figures most admired by Americans, died early Feb. 21 at his home in Montreat, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He was 99.
He had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for many years, although he continued to lead crusades until 2005, when he held his last one in New York. In recent years, he also suffered from cancer, pneumonia and other ailments.
Rev. Graham will lie in honor the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Feb. 28-March 1. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will receive the casket with his body when it arrives at the Capitol and will take part in a bicameral service. Members of the public will be able to pay their respects. Rev. Graham will be the first private citizen to lie in honor on Capitol Hill since civil rights heroine Rosa Parks in 2005.
His body will be returned to North Carolina for his funeral March 2 at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. The service will be private and by invitation only.
During his more than 60 years of ministry, Rev. Graham welcomed representatives of other denominations, including Catholics, to attend his crusades. In many places local Catholic authorities welcomed him and formed pastoral follow-up programs to welcome lapsed Catholics who were prompted by the preacher to return to the church.
In 1964, Cardinal Richard J. Cushing of Boston said that no Catholic who heard Graham preach “can do anything but become a better Catholic.”
At his final crusade, for example, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn, in whose diocese the crusade was held, said: “As a fellow Christian, I pray that the Lord will continue to bless him in his ministry to preach the Gospel to all who are willing to listen.”
He noted that Rev. Graham encouraged church members who make commitments during a crusade to return to their own churches, and his evangelization office scheduled listening sessions, revival missions and other forms of pastoral outreach in parishes.
Diocese of Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin paid tribute to Rev. Graham’s zeal for preaching the Gospel with conviction.
“Reverend Billy Graham was an American original, an icon. More importantly, a great evangelist who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ with clarity, courage and conviction. May he now enjoy the eternal peace and joy of God’s presence in heaven,” Bishop Tobin said in a posting on his Twitter page.
Father John A. Kiley, ecumenical officer for the Diocese of Providence, said Rev. Graham admirably preached about personal conversion achieved through deep dedication to Biblical teachings.
“The Rev. Billy Graham’s public life certainly nourished the familiar American Protestant notion of Jesus Christ as personal Savior. He wisely and admirably avoided traditional moral and intellectual controversies,” Father Kiley said, reflecting on the iconic preacher’s life.
“He rather emphasized Jesus as Savior welcoming the individual sinner and by equally demanding that the sinner welcome Jesus as judge by repenting of former sins and affirming a new spiritual direction in life. He was solidly in the tradition of the religion of the American West — personal conversion through powerful Biblical preaching. He was a good Protestant — focused on Biblical motivation and individual conversion.”
Rev. Graham — who preferred to be called Mr. Graham — was sometimes regarded as a pastor to presidents because he was known as a spiritual adviser to 13 U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman to Donald Trump. He delivered the invocation at eight presidential inaugurations.
He was best known in the United States and worldwide, however, for his crusades — revival meetings, often held in large stadiums — that took him to more than 185 countries to preach the message of Jesus Christ and invite people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In 1957, he filled New York’s Madison Square Garden for 16 consecutive weeks.
He preached the Gospel in person to more people than any other evangelist in history — he reached at least 210 million through his personal appearances and through his radio and television ministries. In 1950, he launched his weekly “Hour of Decision” radio program that became a staple of Christian broadcasting for 60 years.
When he first met with St. John Paul II in 1981, it was a meeting that had been delayed three years. In 1978, Rev. Graham, on a crusade in Poland, preached at the Catholic cathedral in Krakow and was to have dined with Krakow’s Cardinal Karol Wojtyla. But the cardinal had been called out of town on short notice for important business in Rome — attending the conclave at which he was elected pope.
In an interview with Catholic News Service after a meeting with St. John Paul in 1990, Rev. Graham said being known as an evangelical is misunderstood in some parts of the world.
“Some think in terms of extreme fundamentalism,” he said. “But an evangelical is a person who believes in the authority of the Bible, the atonement of Christ on the cross for our sins, of course the virgin birth of Christ, the Resurrection and the need to respond to the good news of the Gospel by repentance and faith.”
He praised the pope for his Bible-based vision and message and said the pontiff’s homily at the inauguration of his ministry “was a straight evangelistic address.”
“Of course Protestants cannot accept everything (the Catholic Church teaches), but they’re beginning to find out that we have a great deal in common, and perhaps far more in common than we have differences,” he said.
Among the many awards Rev. Graham received over the years were numerous honorary doctorates and a wide range of religious, humanitarian and broadcasting honors. They included the prestigious Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.
The Billy Graham Library was dedicated in Charlotte May 30, 2007, just two weeks before the death of Ruth Graham, his wife of 64 years. Rev. Graham was to be buried alongside her on the library grounds.
He is survived by two sons and three daughters, 19 grandchildren and 41 great-grandchildren.
Rick Snizek contributed to this report from Providence, R.I.
