TEQUESTA | When Father Gabriel Ghanoum conducts a memorial service as part of the No One Buried Alone ministry, he kisses each container of cremated remains of those who died with no known family or friends, whispering “I love you” to each. It’s a moving moment in which he expresses gratitude to each person for the life they lived, the struggles they endured and hopefully the love that they spread.
The ministry is humbling, said Father Ghanoum, director of No One Buried Alone, which provides a dignified burial through a partnership with the Diocese of Palm Beach, Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery and the Palm Beach County Department of Human Services.
“The program helped me to become nonjudgmental because I don’t know their stories. I don’t know what happened to them. Everyone is focusing on what’s wrong with them, but no one paused for a moment about what happened to them. They make me a better human being. So, I thank them,” he said.
At noon Saturday, Nov. 8, Father Ghanoum is scheduled to give a final goodbye to about 250 souls at the Catholic cemetery, 10941 Southern Blvd. in Royal Palm Beach. All are invited to join him in the outdoor chapel and pray for the deceased he “adopted” and for whom he became responsible.
Since 2011, No One Buried Alone has claimed hundreds of cremated remains, including miscarried and stillborn babies, children and adults of all ages, races and religious affiliations, from various funeral homes throughout Palm Beach County, and has seen to their proper burial in a cemetery crypt.
Father Ghanoum, a native of Egypt who speaks six languages, said his main task is to be a “scanner, scanning the needs” of those placed in his path. “I believe in the power of proximity,” he said.
When Father Ghanoum, a Melkite Catholic priest with a doctorate in psychology, founded St. Nicholas Melkite Greek Parish in Delray Beach, he began a position with the HCA health network to help the church pay its bills. He eventually became director of spiritual and palliative care besides teaching classes at the University of Miami.
Shortly after starting at JFK Hospital in Atlantis, he helped take care of a 100-year-old woman named Victoria Scalia in the cardiovascular intensive care unit. When the woman died, he asked if her family had been notified.
“Came to find out that she didn’t have a family,” he said. “It was a foreign concept for me, someone that age doesn’t have a family, so I started digging,” but found that she in fact didn’t have close living relatives.
“I kept asking, ‘So, what happens when someone dies and has no one?’ ‘The county takes the case.’ I said, ‘No, the county doesn’t take the case. The county takes the body. Not the case. A human being is not a case,’” Father Ghanoum said. After being introduced to Tom Jordan, then-director of Our Lady Queen of Peace Cemetery, and Adriana Gorrondona of the Palm Beach County Department of Human Services, they began to collaborate on No One Buried Alone.
Father Ghanoum accepts responsibility for the body when no one else comes forward. “If they had love, they would have not been alone. The three needs that we all are in need of are this: safety, being loved —not feeling love, being loved — and belonging. I may not give them all that, but toward the end, I claim them,” he said.
Now 72 and recently retired from the hospital position, Father Ghanoum began in July as priest assistant at St. Jude Parish in Tequesta while also serving as pastor of St. Nicholas in Delray Beach and No One Buried Alone director. He plans to continue in those roles as long as possible.
“The Bible does not speak of success. It speaks of how fruitful you are, and I define success as: Did I leave the place better than when I received it?” he said. His goal is living with significance.
“Significance is using your success and talents to make a difference and create a life of significance. That’s my mission. I don’t want to be successful. I want to be fruitful. I want to be of significance,” Father Ghanoum said. “I am not going to change the world, but I’m going to do everything in my capacity to guide those in my proximity to become the best version of themselves.”
For more information about supporting the cemetery and the No One Buried Alone ministry, visit https://ourqueen.org/no-one-buried-alone/.
