No religious liturgy anywhere in the world is as hauntingly ethereal and profound as the Catholic funeral mass.
In music and words the mass expresses unshakeable faith in the love of God and the joy of a life of faith and commitment.
Link Byfield's funeral mass in Ste. Emerence Church in Riviere Qui Barre, a dot on the map of Sturgeon County, was testimony to the source of his certainty and, paradoxically, his humility as a journalist, public policy advocate and politician.
If St. Emerentiana, a third century Roman martyr, were alive in the 20th century she would have been a Byfield.
Her stubbornness, outspokenness and refusal to submit to popular opinion led to her death in a city that routinely killed Christians who would not recant their faith.
Link's Jan. 24 death and funeral Jan. 31 were personal and family events, connected to his public life because on the faith-political interface, his first principle was faith, not conservative ideology.
His political farewell was held in September at the Manning Centre for Democracy, after he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
At it he talked about not winning many battles in his controversial political career.
For once he was not seeing clearly, blinded I think by his humility.
Link, his father Ted and their magazine, Alberta Report, were activists in founding the Reform party and the Wildrose party.
Full disclosure: in its first decade, I wrote freelance for Alberta Report and had Link as one of my editors.
By staying the course at great personal financial cost, the Byfields earned the social licence for fiscal conservatism in Alberta.
They cleared the way for Preston Manning, Ralph Klein and Danielle Smith.
In a fundamental way, Ted and Link Byfield changed Alberta.
The politicians were their hand servants, using their words and ideas as a blueprint.
The men who financed Alberta Report and Ted Byfield's subsequent books on the history of Alberta and history of the Christian faith, many of who are dead, saw Alberta remade in the mould they wanted.
Link's funeral marks the end of that era in Alberta's history.
Frank Dabbs is a veteran business and political journalist, author of three biographies, and a contributor to, researcher or editor of half a dozen books.
