STRIKING TRIBUTE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21051, 24 March 1943, Page 3

STRIKING TRIBUTE

PRELATE’S MEMORY WESTMINSTER OBSEQUIES MESSAGE FROM POPE (11 a.m.) LONDON, March 21. A congregation of 6000 crowded Westminster Cathedral and many others were unable to get in and listened outside to the requiem mass for Cardinal Hinsley. Queues formed at 7.30 a.m. to attend the mass which was due to begin at 11 a.m. Five hundred clergy, carrying unlighted candles, participated in the procession down the nave to places on each side of the catafalque. The coffin, with its black velvet and gold pall, was surrounded with massed white candles and beads. Religious orders were in the sanctuary as the cathedral choir sang the'mass. The congregation included members of the diplomatic corps, representing the Allied nations and other countries, members of Parliament, and representatives of national and international religious bodies. Mr. C. Knowles, private secretary, represented the New Zealand High Commissioner. Mr. W. J. Jordan.

The Archbishop of Liverpool. Dr. R. Downey, preached, the funeral obsequies. He said the loss of Cardinal Hinsley was a loss to the universal church, nation, and humanity. He read a telegram from the Pope in which Pope Pius expressed profound grief at the death of Cardinal Hinsley and recalled his untiring and conscientious labours. He expressed confidence that his memory would serve as a lasting inspiration to the hierarchy, clergy and the faithful. The coffin will rest in the Chapel of Holy Souls, in the south aisle of the Cathedral until interment in St. Joseph’s Chapel where a vault is being prepared. The interment will probably be carried out on March 26. and will be private and attended only by relatives and also his court and the metropolitan cathedral chapter. In-the congregation was Archbishop Spellman, who had arrived in London on Saturday from North Africa.