John Carmel Heenan

Infobox Cardinal
name = John Carmel Heenan
title = Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster


caption =
diocese =
see = Westminster
birth_name =
enthroned = September 2, 1963
ended = November 7, 1975
predecessor = William Cardinal Godfrey
successor = Basil Cardinal Hume
ordination = July 6, 1930
consecration = January 27, 1951
cardinal = February 22, 1965
rank =
other_post = Archbishop of Liverpool
Bishop of Leeds
birth_date = birth date|1905|1|26|mf=y
birthplace = Ilford, Redbridge
death_date = death date and age|1975|11|7|1905|1|26|mf=y
deathplace =
buried = Westminster Cathedral

John Carmel Cardinal Heenan (January 26, 1905—November 7, 1975) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1965.

Biography

John Heenan was born in Ilford, Redbridge, as the youngest of the four children of the Irish John and Anne (née Pilkington) Heenan. He auditioned for Westminster Cathedral Choir School at age 9, but Sir Richard Terry rejected him for his "metallic voice" [Diocese of Westminster. [http://www.rcdow.org.uk/cardinal/default.asp?library_ref=1&content_ref=14 Cardinal John Carmel Heenan] January 11, 2005] . 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 July 6, 1930. He then did pastoral work in Brentwood until 1947, at which time he became Superior 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 [Time Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812677,00.html Dominant Theme] June 12, 1950] .

On January 27, 1951, he was appointed Bishop of Leeds by Pope Pius XII. Heenan received his episcopal consecration on the following March 12 from Archbishop William Godfrey, with Bishops Joseph McCormack and John Petit serving as co-consecrators. Named the sixth Archbishop of Liverpool on May 2, 1957, Heenan was later appointed the eighth Archbishop of Westminster on September 2, 1963. As Archbishop of Westminster, he served as the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

A participant of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1963), 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. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876333,00.html The Bravest Schema] October 30, 1964] . The English prelate also condemned the "periti", or theological experts, who sought to change the Church's doctrine on birth control [Ibid.] . Moreover, despite the risks to ecumenism, Heenan later supported the canonization of the forty martyrs [Time Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878673-2,00.html Furor over Forty] January 19, 1970] .He was created Cardinal Priest of "S. Silvestro in Capite" by Pope Paul VI in the consistory of February 22, 1965. In 1968, Heenan was named President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

He died from a heart attack in London [Time Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917937,00.html] November 17, 1975] at age 70, and is buried in Westminster Cathedral, under the twelfth Station of the Cross ("Jesus dies on the Cross").

Quotes

*"A church that is half empty is half full." [Time Magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800246,00.html Revival in England] May 9, 1949]
*"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

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bheenanj.html Catholic-Hierarchy profile]
* [http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-h.htm#Heenan Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church profile]