Heenan by Paul Tobin

Friday 14 November 1975 – The Funeral Mass for John Carmel Cardinal Heenan, Eighth Archbishop of Westminster (1963-1975)

Paul Tobin

The death of Cardinal Heenan in the former Westminster Hospital at the age of 70 did not come as a surprise, as he had not been in good health for a number of years, which led to his offering his resignation to Pope (now St) Paul Vl just a couple of months before his death. At his bedside were Mgr Frederick (Fred) Miles, Private Secretary, and Fr Denis Murphy, Chaplain to the Hospital.

Seven days after the Cardinal’s death, his Funeral Mass was held on a cold, foggy day which prevented, among others, the Cardinal Archbishops of Paris (Marty) and Mechelen-Brussel (Suenens) from flying to Heathrow. The Queen was represented and the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, who was also MP for the Huyton Constituency in the Liverpool Archdiocese where the Cardinal had been archbishop prior to his translation to Westminster in 1963, attended with his wife Mary.

In image 1 readers will note a large number of clergy wearing cassocks and cottas in the nave with relatively few concelebrants on the Sanctuary. This was at the time before Masses were concelebrated by all priests present and before the era of diocesan vestments; hence the different styles of chasuble being worn on the sanctuary. Mgr Wilfred Purney, a former Precentor of the choir, did on this occasion conduct the assembled clergy in singing the alternate verses of the Kyrie, with the choir singing the setting by Victoria. They also sang the first verse of Dies Irae as a refrain to the Responsorial Psalm ‘Out of the Depths’, the music being composed by Colin Mawby as a personal tribute to the late Cardinal. The forward- facing altar at the time was made to the same dimensions as the High Altar, hence the two tone purple frontal that was always used on special occasions.

In image 2 Archbishop George Patrick Dwyer of Birmingham (1965-1981) standing at the ambo is seen delivering the eulogy. The Cardinal had left brief instructions that, rather than a traditional funeral oration, all he wanted was a few words and a prayer for the repose of his

soul. This was revealed at the start of the Mass by the Principal Celebrant, Bishop Patrick Casey, Bishop of Brentwood 1969-1979 and formerly Auxiliary Bishop in Westminster. He is the mitred figure immediately to the right of Archbishop Dwyer. The figure in cope to the left is the Cathedral Administrator at the time, Mgr Francis Bartlett, acting as Assistant Priest, a role that only formally exists in the Extraordinary Form at a Pontifical High Mass, along with two Assistant Deacons here seated either side of the Bishop. The two Mass Deacons can be seen in darker Dalmatics to the left of Mgr Bartlett, whose brother Anthony as Gentiluomo to the Cardinal is seen to the right of the picture alongside Mgr Miles, who as Private Secretary is wearing the ferraiolo (cloak) over his cassock.

In the apse, between two candles on the High Altar, can be seen the seated figure of the Master of Music, Colin Mawby (1936-2019).