Mgr. Heenan asks for their prayers
MGR. John Heenan, Bishop elect of Leeds, on Sunday asked non-Catholics as well as Catholics to pray on Monday, his consecration day, that he will be a good Bishop.
Speaking to an audience of almost 3.000 in the Sheffield City Hall, he said he had come to the diocese for the duration of his life not, he hoped, the duration of hostilities.
'He hoped that it would be the duration of "a warm friendship. the kind of friendship that should exist between a Bishop and his people. not only his Catholic people but also his beloved non-Catholic people."
He asked that on Monday the Catholics of the diocese would offer Mass and Holy Communion, and he asked non-Catholics to pray for him in their own way.
He regretted that he would no longer be able to continue his work. as a missionary to the non-Catholics of the country.
St. Gregory
I wrsh." he said, " that you could all be present tomorrow week at my consecration. I have chosen the Feast of St. Gregory the Great, because he was the apostle of England. It was St. Gregory who sent St. Augustine to these shores to convert England."
After his address the audience joined him in prayer for the success of his episcopate.
Mgr. Heenan was speaking at the close of a series of talks on " The Catholic Church and You," organised by the Sheffield Council of C.atholic Action.
Last year, when he was Superior of the Catholic Missionary Society, he made a series of talks to packed audiences in the city. His place this year was taken by Fr. Thomas Holland, also of the C.M.S.