The Latin Mass Society’s annual Requiem Mass was celebrated in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday, November 19 by Bishop Alan Hopes, auxiliary bishop of Westminster, after a wreath-laying ceremony at the tomb of Cardinal Heenan.
Every year the LMS organises a Pontifical High Mass in the Cathedral for the repose of the souls of all its deceased members and to mark November as the month of the Holy Souls. Bishop Hopes was assisted by the LMS’s national chaplain, Fr Andrew Southwell, who was assistant priest. Fr Tim Finigan was also present as deacon, as was Fr David Irwin as sub-deacon.
In his sermon, Bishop Hopes reminded the congregation that the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory is a comforting one that shows God’s great mercy and that we, as Catholics, have a duty, in charity, to pray for the Church Suffering, the Holy Souls. After Mass, Bishop Hopes gave the traditional Absolutions at the Catafalque.
Immediately before Mass began members of the LMS’s national committee laid a wreath on the tomb of Cardinal Heenan in thanks for the cardinal’s role in helping to preserve the Traditional Mass in England and Wales.
Prayers were then said for the cardinal by Fr Patrick Hayward, CRL.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the “Heenan Indult” which was issued by Paul VI at the personal request of the cardinal. It was the first of the official permissions granted by the Holy See for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass culminating in the Holy Father’s 2007 Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. Mike Lord, the general manager of the LMS, said: “The LMS’s annual Requiem is a solemn reminder to all attached to the Extraordinary Form of what we owe those who have gone before us in the struggle to preserve the Traditional Mass.’
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