His career would put him in touch with popes, cardinals, archbishops and bishops. But he was equally drawn to the people he would never call "common" or "ordinary."

Msgr. Fiedler couldn't go to a restaurant for dinner without discovering everything he could learn about the waiter or waitress who served him, said Father Michael Clary, pastor of Our Lady of the Presentation Parish in Lee's Summit and chosen by Msgr. Fiedler to deliver the funeral homily.

Twice a month, Father Clary told the congregation, he and Father Ken Riley, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Oakview, would go to dinner with Msgr. Fiedler.

"Whoever the waiter was, he needed to know his name," Father Clary said. But it didn't end there. Msgr. Fiedler would continue to ask about the server's family, his job, his life.

"By the end of the evening, I knew more about that waiter than I could ever imagine," Father Clary said. "And if they didn't go to church, he invited them to come here."

That was Msgr. Fiedler's vision of the church - a place where everyone was special, and where everyone had gifts to offer, Father Clary said.

"He realized that the church was the people of God, and he delighted in the people of God," Father Clary said.

"That was all part of Bud and how he saw the church," Father Clary said. "He loved to see people using their gifts and he loved to see the church expressing itself in that way."

But above all else, Msgr. Fiedler loved the sacrifice of the Mass.

"For him, the source and summit of the church was here, doing what we are doing today," Father Clary said.

"I don't know anyone who prepared more for Mass than Bud," he said. "He agonized and work hard on those homilies. He delighted in coming to pray with people in the cathedral. He loved to teach, and he loved to learn."

Father Clary said that Msgr. Fiedler taught well, "by his words, but more by his life."

Even as he was dying, Msgr. Fiedler's primary concern was in setting an example of dying well, Father Clary said.

"His concern was not about death," he said. "His concern was, 'How do I do this in a way that witnesses to my belief in God and the teachings of the church.'

"In letting go, he was preparing for something far greater," Father Clary said. "In letting go, he was preparing for eternal life."

The gifts that Msgr. Fiedler drew from people were in full flower at both his vigil service on Jan. 2 and his funeral Mass.

Forty of his brother priests, and 15 permanent deacons came to the Mass of Christian Burial.

His beloved cathedral was magnificently decorated for the Christmas season, the season of the word made flesh, with a huge evergreen wreath suspended directly over Msgr. Fiedler's wooden casket.

The organist, Mercy Sister Claudette Schiratti, and the combined choirs of the cathedral, led by Mario Pearson, and Holy Family Parish in Kansas City, led by former cathedral music director John Winkels, blended voices and instruments with guest voices and musicians in music that ranged from liturgical classics to contemporary.

And the rose window on the south wall, Msgr. Fiedler's personal project during the cathedral renovation, blazed in color with the light of a low, winter sun.

"He served with distinction and so many times offered his personal support to me," Bishop Robert W. Finn said as he prepared to offer the final commendation at the end of the liturgy.

"He readily sought and saw Jesus Christ in his people," the bishop said. "As we now commend him to God's mercy, we trust in our Father, God in heaven, to grant him eternal life and peace."

In his memory, Msgr. Fiedler asked for donations for the work of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 416 W. 12th St., Kansas City, MO 64105.

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