'• Apostolic Delegate to this country, was present at Marian House. North Finchley, London, the house run by two Byelorussian Marian Fathers of the Byzantine Slavonic rite, on Saturday evenas When a panikhida was sung for the late Holy Father.
The panikhida is the Byzantine rite Office for the Dead, originally the all-night vigil around the corpse; hut on Saturday evening a shortened form was sung, lasting only three-quarters of an hour, while the congregation of about 30 that packed the tiny chapel stood holding lighted candles in their hands.
In effect, what was chanted by Fr. Sipovich, wearing red vestments and the black cylindrical headgear of the Eastern rite, and the choir was one long prayer for the repose, tranquillity, and blessed memory of the ever-memorable servant of God, the Universal Pastor, Pope Pius, the Bishop of Rome, "that the Lord our God will establish his soul in a place of verdure, a place of repose, where all the righteous dwell".
In his address at the end of the panikhida, Arehbishop O'Hara wondered how many groups like this there were all round the world, in exile but united in their Catholic Faith, their love for the Holy Father, and their grief in mourning the death of Pope Pius XII He recalled words spoken by the Pope earlier this year, when he looked forward to a glorious springtime, and said he hoped this would turn out to be a true prophecy.