By Paul J. Condra
The 50-year-old priest was shot in the back, during a March 12 Mass he was leading at his Lynbrook church. A parishioner, Eileen Tosner, 73, of Lynbrook, also was shot to death during the Mass. A suspect was arrested hours after the murders and charged in the shootings.
Penzes' funeral was held Friday at St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre. Even St. Agnes, the cathedral church of the diocese, didn't have enough space to accommodate the estimated 1,000 mourners who came to pay their last respects, to hear the eulogies, to view Penzes one last time and to bid him a fond farewell.
Even in the quiet loft, where members of the press were assembled, one eager woman who had no other place from which to view the service refused to leave until she was escorted out by police.
About 200 priests, vested in white and egg-colored robes, occupied the front benches of the church. The transepts were filled by Lynbrook firefighters
