Diplomatic Service in Ireland, Roumania
WESTMINSTER REQUIEM
PONTIFICAL Requiem Mass for Archbishop Gerald Patrick O'Hara, Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, Malta, Gibraltar, and Bermuda for the past nine years and who died on Tuesday, will be celebrated in Westminster Cathedral, today (Friday) at 11.34) a.m. by Archbishop Grimshaw, senior member of the Hierarchy.
Since Wednesday morning the body of the late Archbishop has been lying in the chapel of the Apostolic Delegation, Wimbledon. Last night it was removed to Westminster Cathedral where a solemn dirge took place at 8 p.m.
The remains will be flown to Philadelphia for burial.
Archbishop O'Hara had a heart attack on Friday last and received Extreme Unction and Holy Viaticum at his own request from Fr. I. Jones. C.SS.R. Then he rallied for 24 hours, but from Sunday onwards he became progressively weaker.
A telegram was received from the Holy Father expressing his deep concern. promising prayers, and giving a special Apostolic Blessing.
On Tuesday. his brother Edward, a textile wholesaler in Philadelphia, arrived by air from the U.S. But in the early afternoon the Archbishop became much weaker and was clearly sinking. He died very peacefully. His brother: S.Ifir. 'f brpigliani, counsellor at the Delegation; Fr. J. I . Carson. his personal secretary; Fr. J. Jones, Dr. M. Hewett, his personal doctor, five sisters who had nursed him through his illness and other members of the Delegation staff were at his bedside.
TELEGRAMS
Telegrams of sympathy have poured in from all over Britain, from Ireland, from Roumanian exiles, from Malta, and from representatives of Non-Catholic Churches in Britain.
Archbishop O'Hara had been ill for some time. His last major Public appearance had been to preside at the Pontifical High Mass in Westminster Cathedral on July 2 to celebrate the election of Pope Paul VI. He celebrated his 68th birthday in May.
Only the second Apostolic Delegate to hold this post in the 25 years since it was established by Pope Pius X1 in 1938, Archbishop O'llara has died only six months after Cardinal Godfrey whom he succeeded at the Wimbledon Delegation.
Although he had attended the first session of the Vatican Council, the Archbishop had been ill for some time He had had three heart attacks since Christmas 1962, and suffered from other ailments.
Archbishop Gerald O'Hara then Bishop of Savannah Atlanta, Georgia, came to London via Dublin, from behind the iron Curtain. For some years he had been Regent of the Nunciature in Bucharest, but in 1950, after a systematic campaign against the Church. and a series of trials of Latin and Byzantine Rite clergy, he was expelled from Roumania.
On his arrival in Rome the Pope conferred on him the personal title of Archbishop. From November 1951 to June 1954 he served as Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland.
THE FIRST
His appointment, on June 7, 1954, as the first American prelate to hold an appointment in England provided another link in a chain binding the hierarchies of Britain and the U.S. The first member of the U.S. Hierarchy was Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore, who was consecrated on August 15, 1790, by Bishop Walmesley, Vicar Apostolic, in the chapel of Lutworth Castle.
Archbishop Godfrey who had moved to the see of Liverpool after 15 sears as Britain's first Apostolic Delegate was succeeded by a man who had been among the youngest bishops in the world. Archbishop O'Hara was appointed at the age of 33, and consecrated on May 5. 1929. the day after his 34th birthday.
Archbishop O'Hara was born in Green Ridge, near Scranton, Pennsylvania„ on May 4. 1895, the son of Dr. Patrick J. and Margaret O'Hara. His father who was born in Blyth, Northumberland had emigrated to the U.S. He was ordained in the Lateran Basilica, Rome, in 1920. He gained a DD and a DCL and went to Philadelphia as secretary to Cardinal Dougherty. He was also named a judge of the matrimonial court of the diocese. '
In 1929 he was named titular Bishop of Heliopolis and Auxiliary Bishop or Philadelphia, He also became Vicar General of the diocese. He was transferred to the see of Savannah in 1935 and two sears later Pope Pius XI changed the name of his diocese to Savannah-Atlanta giving a coCathedral to Atlanta.
Service in the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See started in 1947 when Pope Pius XII appointed Bishop O'Hara as Regent ad interim at the Papal Nunciature in Bucharest, Roumania. During the three years he was there, the Bishop protested frequently against the continually rising encroachments of the Committee regime of that country against the Church, the clergy and the laity. The closing of schools and seminaries and the spread of propaganda against church teaching, was followed in 1948 by the denunciation of the Concordat will, the Holy See and then the a, lest of Greek, Catholic and Latin Rite Bishops. On June 4. 1950, the Bishop and his staff were expelled.
Then followed the personal title of Archbishop given by Pope Pius X11; the years in Ireland as Nuncio during which he received an honorary doctorate of Laws from the National University of Ireland. and thence, in 1954, to England. He arrived here on August 16 to take over his duties which included being Papal repre Continued on page 9, col. 4