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PRESS RELEASE FROM THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY
29 November 2007
Bishop John Arnold of Westminster Becomes First English and Welsh Bishop to Celebrate the Traditional Rite in Westminster Cathedral Since the Liturgical Changes of 1969
Bishop John Arnold, Auxiliary Bishop in Westminster, celebrated a Pontifical High Mass of Requiem in Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 27 November. He did so at the request of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor. The Mass was organised by the Latin Mass Society. Bishop Arnold’s Assistant Priest was Fr Andrew Wadsworth; the Deacon was Fr Andrew Southwell and the Sub-deacon Fr Benjamin Durham FSSP.
A large congregation of over 700 heard the men of the Cathedral Choir sing traditional plainchant. The bishop also preached. His theme was preparation for death as an access into new life in the knowledge that “Jesus died and rose from the dead in order to complete His plan of redemption for all.” At Requiem Masses Catholics have the privilege of offering prayers for the dead and the chance of imitating in this life the goodness which many of those who have gone before us embodied. Death is a sign of hope that one day we might enjoy “eternal life in the presence of a God who loves us more than we could dare to imagine.”
Before Mass, a wreath was laid by Julian Chadwick, Chairman of the LMS, and other LMS Committee members on the grave of Cardinal Heenan in the cathedral nave in thanksgiving for the Cardinal’s efforts to preserve the Extraordinary (Traditional) Form of the Roman Rite. Father Patrick Hayward was chaplain for the occasion.
John Medlin, General Manager of the LMS, said: “The LMS is grateful to Cardinal Cormac and to Bishop John for their pastoral charity towards those many Catholics attached to the Traditional Roman Rite. We are also very grateful to Mgr Mark Langham, the Cathedral Administrator, for making us welcome in the cathedral. We look forward to celebrations of the Extraordinary Form in many more of our cathedrals throughout England and Wales."
