June 18, 2008, from MSNBC website:
...television journalist Tim Russert. A private funeral Mass was held this morning at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in the Georgetown neighborhood of the nation’s capital.
The funeral mass was yesterday morning.
Here’s another tidbit from MSNBC:
“On Tuesday, hundreds of friends, colleagues and strangers joined President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, in paying respects to Russert at a wake.
“Several hundred people were in line more than an hour before the early afternoon start of the wake at St. Albans School, an elite private boys school on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral in Northwest Washington.”
It may be that because he was Catholic, they didn’t hold the wake at the National Cathedral, but at another venue on the grounds of the National Cathedral, which happened to be St. Albans school. Can’t find anything else about why St. Albans school might have been used, but it may have been that it was used because it wasn’t consecrated building.