Sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? But it’s not.
The thread about what kind of an inauguration speech you would give, if elected President, reminded me of an event I saw on TV. Something important, and national, and televised all the way through. But for the life of me I can’t remember the event. It was no later, I think, than fifteen years ago, probably earlier.
Three clergy had been invited to open the event with prayer, thus the title of the thread. I don’t remember the names of the rabbi or the Protestant minister. They both gave long winded prayers, what I call “sermon prayers”. The Catholic priest I do remember, he was Fr. Theodore Hesburgh, president emeritus of Notre Dame, amongst other offices he held, a really famous guy. He was third to pray. He looked out at the people gathered, over the top of his glasses, and said "At a time like this, I can think of nothing better to say than ‘Our Father, Who art in Heaven…’ " and he finished the Lord’s Prayer. He hadn’t composed his own prayer to show off, and that stood out.
I have searched and Googled different combinations of terms, trying to find out what this occasion was. But combining “prayer” and “Hesburgh” comes up with so many hits nothing stands out.
Does anyone have suggestions on a better way, or different terms, to search with, so I might figure out when I saw this?