There is no understanding Ed Feulner without knowing that he was an active Catholic.

A good man died Friday. God rest the soul of Edwin J. Feulner and console his wife (of four decades and counting!) and family.

I’ve known Ed Feulner since I was 19 or 20 years old. I was an intern at the Heritage Foundation while an undergraduate at the Catholic University of America. I heard during my first semester on campus that Heritage needed interns during the school year. And the rest was history. While I don’t recommend it — be a student as long as you can! — I started interning there in my freshman year and was doing contract work there by my last semester of an expedited college experience.

I was there during some exciting years for conservatives on the Hill and did everything from learning how to tap a keg to actual research and things. (It’s probably ancient history now, but once when delivering position papers to Hill offices, Congressman “B-1 Bob” Dornan offered to help me, referring to me as “Darling,” which may have made my internship at the time.) Dornan aside, we actually had surprising access to Ed Meese and the founding and then–current Heritage president, Ed Feulner. His “people are policy”/”personnel is policy” talk stemmed from the fact that both Eds would see the human person first. There’s no point to policy without people. That extended to interns, who weren’t just invisible free labor. We were meant to feel like valuable team members. It was a wonderful experience.

National Review hired Ed’s vice president for government relations, Kate O’Beirne, as Washington editor not too long after I started there. Kate would be the reason I ever found myself here. (Ed and Kate would continue to collaborate, including during weekly policy lunches.)

God love her. As you likely know, cancer took her from us too soon. We who loved her miss her (and will tell you about her with joy and sorrow should you ever ask).

And, now, we say goodbye to Ed Feulner. I’m still shocked by the news that broke Friday night. As happens all too often, I had meant to check in with him about something specific as an excuse to check in about life just last week. I didn’t ever get around to it.

Ed was one of those people I always delighted in running into at a random Mass around town. The last time we really talked was last summer in a green room — with Lee Edwards, whom I also met back in college, who wrote a biography about Ed, and who died this past December.

We are losing some greats — to become intercessors for us left behind, we Catholics (Kate, Ed, and Lee are all of our tribe). Not that it is all about us, but we need the help!

There is no understanding Ed Feulner without knowing that he was an active Catholic. He understood conservatism in stewardship and thanksgiving terms, much as Bill Buckley did. We cannot afford to lose that.