Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor was praised as a “priest to his fingertips” during a funeral Mass at Westminster Cathedral last week.
Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff said in his homily that the former Archbishop of Westminster was a gifted man who put his talents at the “service of God and the Church and society at large”.
He told mourners that in the weeks approaching his death the cardinal had grown “impatient to be gone”, knowing that his “life’s work was done”.
“What a life and what a work,” said Archbishop Stack, who had previously served as an auxiliary bishop of Westminster under the cardinal. “Cormac was a priest to his fingertips,” he said. “He was comfortable in his own skin. He was aware of his failings, yet supremely confident in his calling.
“He was a gifted man who would have made a success of whatever career he chose. Medicine or music – maybe even golf or perhaps rugby … Yet from an early age he was convinced he should be a priest.
“His gift for friendship and his capacity for putting people at their ease, together with his insightful mind and depth of faith, were a wonderful combination of gifts.”
Such gifts, Archbishop Stack explained, enabled the cardinal to reach out to other Christians in an ecumenical dialogue that he was convinced was “sorely needed in a fragmented world”.
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was also a man of sufficient humility to learn from his mistakes, the archbishop added, alluding to his re-appointment of Fr Michael Hill, a known paedophile who went on to abuse other children.
Archbishop Stack said: “He acknowledged his mistakes. He made no excuses. He said the most difficult words of all: ‘I’m sorry.’ He learned a huge lesson and proceeded to establish the most robust safeguarding mechanism possible, a model for other institutions. Humility and action were part of the robe that he wore.”
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor retired in 2009, and died a week after his 85th birthday, surrounded by friends and family.
His funeral was attended by about 1,200 invited guests. They included the Duke of Norfolk, who represented the Prince of Wales; former Irish president Mary McAleese; the Most Rev Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his predecessor, Lord Williams of Oystermouth.
Luke Coppen: More of a family get-together than a media spectacle
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor didn’t want his funeral to be a celebration of his life, but rather an expression of his faith.
He would have been pleased by last week’s Mass at Westminster Cathedral, which brought together Catholics of all kinds: bishops arrayed in their stubby white mitres, papal knights in dark green tails, black-veiled nuns, boyish MPs, Cathedral parishioners and crying babies. There were also archbishops of Canterbury past and present, as well as luxuriantly bearded Orthodox clergy.
The sun slanted through the south windows as the cardinal’s plain coffin was carried to its final resting place: a chapel beside the giant square Tenth Station of the Cross, designed by Eric Gill. The cardinal wanted to be buried there so that people – on their way to Confession, perhaps, or to the Lady Chapel – would remember to pray for him.
The funeral was less of a national media spectacle than that of Cardinal Cormac’s predecessor. Cardinal Basil Hume’s obsequies in 1999 were broadcast live on television and mourners included the prime minister, the not-yet-Catholic Tony Blair.
This felt like a more strictly ecclesial event: the first funeral of a retired archbishop of Westminster. Despite the massive congregation it also managed to be a family occasion. The Murphy-O’Connor clan – all 95 of them – were at the heart of the Mass, with the cardinal’s nephew, Patrick, recalling Uncle Cormac’s transparent faith, eloquence and lack of golfing prowess in an address before the liturgy began.
Patrick spoke of how, when people thought of Cardinal Cormac, they would invariably smile. As the mourners inched out of the Cathedral, into a downpour, there were so many happy faces. In death, as in life, the cardinal had the ability to cheer people up.
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