REQUIEM MASS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 128, 1 June 1943, Page 4

REQUIEM MASS

LATE CARDINAL HINSLEY

A great Yorkshire man —"forthright, valiant, and unconquerable"—was honoured in Westminster Cathedral when representatives of Great Britain and the Allied and neutral nations were present at the Solemn Pontifical Requiem Mass for Cardinal Hinsley, says the London "Daily Telegraph." Five Archbishops took part in' the Mass and the Office of Absolution which followed it. Seven hundred Roman Catholic clergy carried their candles in procession to where the coffin, beneath a gold-embroidered black velvet pall, stood high upon the catafalque before the Sanctuary.

At the head of a vast congregation of 6000, many of whom had waited for hours to gain admission to the Cathedral, sat General Sikorski, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, and M. Knezevic, diplomatic representtaive1 of King Peter of Yugoslavia. Each had his own prie-dieu in the open space before the bier. To the right, beneath the marble pulpit, sat the Mayor of Westminster, Mr. H. V. Day, wearing his chain of office, and the Swordbearer of the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

General de Gaulle sat among the peers and diplomats in' a front pew. A representative number of M.P.s were present. Members of the Cabinet included Sir John Anderson, Lord President of the Council, Mr. R. A. Butler, President of the Board of Education, Mr. Brendan Bracken, Minister of Information, and Captain H. F. C. Crookshank, Postmaster-General.

The Duke of Norfolk headed the Catholic peers. Church of England clergy present included the Bishop of Gloucester, Dr. Headlam, the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. Bell, the Dean of Westminster, the Rt. Rev. P. F. D. De Labilliere, and the Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. W. R. Matthews. They testified by their presence the reality of the late Cardinal's influence in drawing the Christian churches closer together. Archbishop Germanos represented the Greek Orthodox Church.

All these, and thousands of more ordinary folk who thronged the side chapels and the galleries, saw the long, procession of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy of England and Wales proceed from the West Door to their places in and before the Sanctuary. As it moved down the centre aisle, the cinephotographers in the gallery provided a concomitant effect which was strangely impressive. Great flood lamps suddenly flowered from the dimness below the clerestories and swept along the cortege to rest at last on the catafalque itself. The glitter of the candles dwindled, and the coffin, bearing the dead Cardinal's hat and crimson tassels, and his scarlet biretta, was bathed in golden light.

The. Celebrant of the Mass was Dr. Amigo, Archbishop-Bishop of Southwark, in whose diocese Cardinal Hinsley himself was once a parish priest at Sydenham. Mass was sung in the presence of Archbishop Godfrey, Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain.

Conspicuous among the clergy in attendance on the Apostolic Delegate was Lord Sempill, the only layman, wearing a kilt. He is the Apostolic Delegate's Gentleman in Waiting. The rites of Absolution were performed in turn by Bishop Myers, Provost of the Chapter, Bishop Doubleday of Brentwood, Dr. McGrath, Archbishop of Cardiff, Monsignor Spellman, Archbishop of New York, and Archbishop Godfrey. Later in the afternoon the coffin was removed to the Chapel of Holy Souls, there to remain until the final restingplace in St. Joseph's Chapel was ready. The ceremony was conducted by Monsignor Elwes and Monsignor Collings, the late Cardinal's secretaries.