John Carmel Heenan (26 January 1905 – 7 November 1975) was a senior-ranking English prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as

Archbishop of Westminster The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the metropolitan of the Province of Westminster, chief metropolitan of England and Wales and, as a matter of custom, is elected presid ...

from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Biography

Early life and ordination

John Heenan was born in Ilford, Essex, the youngest of four children of Irish parents John and Anne Heenan (née Pilkington). He auditioned for Westminster Cathedral

Choir School This article contains a list of choir schools sorted alphabetically by country. Australia *St Andrew's Cathedral School , motto_translation = The Way of the Cross is the Way of Light , established = , type ...

at age 9, but Sir Richard Terry rejected him for his "metallic voice". Heenan studied at St. Ignatius College in Stamford Hill, Ushaw College in Durham, and the Venerable English College in Rome before being ordained to the priesthood on 6 July 1930. He then did

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

work in Brentwood until 1947, at which time he became

Superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

of the Catholic Missionary Society of England and Wales. In this position, Heenan criticized the United States for being too concerned about communism, and not enough about spiritual matters. By this time he had published a biography (1943) of Cardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, who had recently died.

Bishop

On 27 January 1951, Heenan was appointed the fifth Bishop of Leeds by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 12 March from Archbishop William Godfrey, Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, with Joseph McCormack,

Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle The Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in the Province of Liverpool, known also on occasion as the Northern Province. History With the gradual abolition of the legal restricti ...

, and John Petit, Bishop of Menevia, serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

. Named the sixth

Archbishop of Liverpool The Archbishop of Liverpool is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. The archdiocese covers an area of of the west of the C ...

on 2 May 1957, Heenan was later appointed the eighth

on 2 September 1963. As Archbishop of Westminster, he served as the spiritual leader of the

Catholic Church in England and Wales The Catholic Church in England and Wales ( la, Ecclesia Catholica in Anglia et Cambria; cy, Yr Eglwys Gatholig yng Nghymru a Lloegr) is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th ce ...

. In 1968, Heenan was elected President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

Positions during the Second Vatican Council

A participant of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), Heenan showed himself to be of a conservative mind. He opposed '' Gaudium et spes'', the council's constitution on the church in the modern world, saying that it had been "written by clerics with no knowledge of the world".Time Magazine
The Bravest Schema
30 October 1964 He also condemned the ''

periti ''Peritus'' (Latin for "expert") is the title given to Roman Catholic theologians attending an ecumenical council to give advice. At the Second Vatican Council, some ''periti'' (the plural form) accompanied individual bishops or groups of bisho ...

'', or theological experts, who sought to change the church's doctrine on

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

. Moreover, despite the risks to

ecumenism Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

, Heenan later supported the

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...

of the forty martyrs.

Cardinal

He was created Cardinal-Priest of '' S. Silvestro in Capite'' by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of 22 February 1965. He died from a heart attack in London at age 70, and is buried in Westminster Cathedral, under the

twelfth Station of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The stations grew out of imitati ...

("Jesus dies on the Cross"). Heenan shared a lengthy correspondence with author Evelyn Waugh regarding the Second Vatican Council. A compilation of their letters, ''A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes'', was first published in 1996 and reprinted in an expanded edition in 2011.

Quotes

*"A church that is half empty is half full." *"At home it is not only women and children but also fathers of families and young men who come regularly to mass. If we were to offer them the kind of ceremony we saw yesterday in the Sistine Chapel we would soon be left with a congregation mostly of women and children."''Liturgical Shipwreck'' TAN Books and Pub. March 1997

References

External links

Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heenan, John 1905 births 1975 deaths Participants in the Second Vatican Council People from Ilford People educated at St Ignatius' College, Enfield Roman Catholic archbishops of Liverpool Roman Catholic archbishops of Westminster 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United Kingdom Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI Alumni of Ushaw College 20th-century British cardinals Roman Catholic bishops of Leeds English College, Rome alumni British Roman Catholic archbishops English people of Irish descent