Family and friends mourn Bailey O'Neill at funeral

Bailey O'Neill liked Granny Smith apples, the high dive, and flying kites on the beach. He was excited, he told his mother, to be confirmed later this month at Collingdale's St. Joseph Church.

He followed the Flyers and the Phillies and served as best man at his grandfather's wedding. He scored the highest math grade in his class at Darby Township School.

In the schoolyard there two months ago, Bailey's nose was broken when he was punched during a fight with two other boys. His parents said he had been the target of bullying, an allegation that has drawn national attention. Two weeks later - after experiencing mood swings, memory problems, and eventually seizures - he was put into a medically induced coma at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, and then moved to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Bailey died the day after his 12th birthday, two weeks shy of the day he would have been confirmed with his religious-education class at St. Joseph. Instead, he was confirmed in his hospital bed.

Bailey was baptized at St. Joseph, Father Thomas Sodano said Saturday morning, right there in the small baptismal font next to the lectern. He went to confession there, too, dutifully reciting Hail Marys and Our Fathers in the big stone church on Woodlawn Avenue.

On Saturday, St. Joseph was where they held Bailey's funeral, friends and family members following his small casket as it made its way down the aisle.

An aunt delivered a short eulogy. "You will be so deeply missed," she said, her voice shaking. Another relative, reading a list of intercessions mid-Mass, stopped midway through, overcome, and continued only after a deacon placed a steady hand on his shoulder. A group of tween girls, sitting in the back of the church, passed tissues back and forth.

The details of exactly what happened to Bailey O'Neill are unclear. An investigation is pending into the cause of his death, and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan said Wednesday that there was a strong likelihood charges would be filed. Investigators are piecing together the circumstances of the Jan. 10 fight and questioning students and teachers at Darby Township School.

Eventually, officials may have to come up with an explanation for Bailey's death and whether someone was responsible.

But the people lining the pews Saturday at St. Joseph Church weren't asking for answers. They were simply saying goodbye to a 12-year-old boy with bright blue eyes and a sweet smile.

Sodano, addressing the congregation, called Bailey a "child of God" and "the first in his class to receive the gift of understanding." He read from the Beatitudes. Blessed are those who are persecuted, he read, for they will see the kingdom of heaven.

"Some would say Bailey lost his last fight," he said. "But they are only looking from an earthly perspective. Some would say Jesus Christ lost his last fight, too."