POPE BENEDICT XVI PRESS PACK Westminster Cathedral 18 September 2010 WestVotive Mass of the Precious Blood with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at Westminster Cathedral His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 18 September at 10am on the third day of his visit to the United Kingdom. As well as celebrating Mass, the Pope will address a crowd of young people gathered outside the Cathedral and address the people of Wales. Mass will be celebrated with Catholic bishops from England, Wales and Scotland. 240 priests will concelebrate the Mass. The congregation will be made up of 1739 people from the Catholic dioceses of England and Wales. The Mass Westminster Cathedral, the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the Mother Church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The Mass that will be celebrated on Saturday 18 September will be the Votive Mass of the Precious Blood rather than the regular Mass of the day - this is because the Cathedral is dedicated to the Most Precious Blood. Westminster Cathedral celebrated the 100th anniversary of its consecration centenary in June 2010. A special Mass has been chosen to mark the occasion of the Papal Visit. A gift from the Holy Father After the Introductory Rite and before the Penitential Rite, Archbishop Vincent Nichols will receive a gift from the Holy Father. The Vestments Because the Holy Father is celebrating the Votive Mass of the Precious Blood, he and all the Bishops will wear red vestments. In the Catholic Church, red is worn for the feast days of martyrs (signifying blood), including the Apostles (except John), and also on days focused on Jesus’ death on the cross (e.g. Palm Sunday and Good Friday), and when the focus is the Holy Spirit (Pentecost Sunday, confirmation masses) signifying the fire of the Holy Spirit. The vestments that the Pope and the four assisting deacons will wear come from the Vatican. The Pope will wear his own chasuble, which is the outermost garment. 1 Music Papal Procession: MacMillan Tu es Petrus Mass setting: Byrd Mass for five voices Offertory: Bruckner Christus factus est Communion: Hassler O sacrum convivium (with Brass) Procession to West Door: Hymn Love Divine Procession to St David’s Mosaic, Bruckner Ecce sacerdos Much of the music is William Byrd’s Mass for five voices. This means that the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and the Agnus Dei are all by William Byrd. William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance and lived from 1540-1623. The Offertory Motet sung after the Creed is by Anton Bruckner, an Austrian composer who lived from 1824- 1896 and is thought to be one of the Holy Father’s favourite composers. Colin Mawby, an ex-Master of Music at the Cathedral, has written a fanfare intro for brass for the final hymn, Love Divine. This hymn is a famous Welsh tune, Blaenwern, and reflects the fact that the Pope will address Wales at the end of the Mass and bless a new mosaic of St David in the Cathedral. Westminster Cathedral choir will in places be accompanied by London Brass Orchestra. London Brass will accompany the Choir particularly in a new commission by James MacMillan, entitled Tu es Petrus, for Pope’s arrival into the Cathedral. Readings The first reading will be read by Mr Neil McLaughan, the Head Master of Westminster Cathedral Choir School. The Gospel will be read by Revd Andrew Gallagher, a deacon in the Diocese of Westminster. Andrew was ordained as a deacon in Westminster Cathedral in June 2010 and is currently in his final year of study at Allen Hall, the Diocese of Westminster seminary. The Bidding Prayers will be read by Toyin Odunuga, a regular reader at Westminster Cathedral. Latin Some parts of the Mass will be said in Latin. Each day at the Solemn Mass at 5.30pm, some Latin is used and so the Mass on Saturday 18 September reflects the life of the Cathedral well. The Eucharistic Prayer (where the offerings of bread and wine are consecrated as the body and blood of Christ) is usually said in Latin at Papal Masses. Greeting the Young Adults After Mass the Pope will walk down the nave of Westminster Cathedral and to the steps on the Piazza where he will greet 2135 young people. These young adults will have been participating in the Mass via a large TV screen outside in the Piazza. 2 There will be a young adult from every parish in England and Wales, young adults from Scotland, and groups of active young volunteers from CAFOD; YCW, Youth 2000, Pax Christi, Catholic Scouting, HCPT, Sion, the Salesians, Jesuit Young Adult Ministries, Just Youth, and Youth SVP. A new national symbol of youth ministry will be presented to the Holy Father by 31 of the young adults. These young adults represent all the Diocese of England and Wales and some youth organisations. The Pope will then bless the youth symbol and address the young adults. St David’s Mosaic After addressing the young people, Pope Benedict will return inside Westminster Cathedral and bless a new mosaic. The Pope is not visiting Wales during this visit, but he will now be greeted in the name of the Church in Wales and pray for its people. A new mosaic of St David, the Patron Saint of Wales, has been installed in Westminster Cathedral to mark this occasion. The mosaic was designed by Welsh artist Ivor Davies and depicts St David preaching on a mound of earth. The mosaic contains a stone from the spot where the ground is said to have raised St David up so that the crowds he was preaching to could hear him better. The Pope will also bless the mosaic with water from St Nonn’s well in Wales. St Nonn was the mother of St David. It is believed that St David lived c. 500AD-589. The Pope will then go to the side chapel of St Paul and will be greeted by The Bishop of Wrexham, the Right Reverend Edwin Regan. The Pope will then address the people of Wales live on TV before praying before the Statue of Our Lady of the Taper which is the Welsh National Shrine to Our Lady and has been brought from Cardigan for this occasion. This prayer will conclude the Mass and celebrations at the Cathedral. History of Westminster Cathedral The site that Westminster Cathedral is now built on was originally known as Bulinga Fen and formed part of the marsh around Westminster. It was reclaimed by the Benedictine monks, who were the builders and owners of Westminster Abbey, and subsequently used as a market and fairground. After the reformation the land was used, in turn, as a maze, a pleasure garden and as a ring for bull-baiting but it remained largely waste ground. In the 17th century a part of the land was sold by the Abbey for the construction of the Tothill Fields’ Bridewell prison which was demolished and replaced by an enlarged prison complex in 1834. After the re-establishment of the Catholic Hierarchy of England and Wales by Pope Pius IX in 1850, the newly emancipated Catholics wanted to build a suitable place of worship in London. The prison site was acquired by the Catholic Church in 1884 by the second Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Henry Edward Manning. After two false starts in 1867 (under architect Henry Clutton) and 1892 (with architect Baron von Herstel) respectively, construction started in 1895 under Manning’s successor, the third Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan with John Francis Bentley as architect. John Francis Bentley was considered the most influential 19th Century Roman Catholic architect in Britain after A. W. N. Pugin. He trained in the office of Henry Clutton, who made the first designs for Westminster Cathedral for Cardinal Manning. Bentley spent five months in Italy working on Westminster Cathedral’s design, which was to be completed in the early Christian Byzantine style, drawing on St Mark in Venice, St Sophia in Constantinople and San Vitale in Ravenna for inspiration. 3 The foundation stone of the Cathedral Church of Westminster, which is dedicated to The Most Precious Blood, was laid in 1895 and the fabric of the building was completed eight years later. Westminster Cathedral opened fully in 1903, almost 2 years after Bentley’s death. For reasons of economy, the decoration of the interior had hardly been started and, even today, much remains to be completed. Under the laws of the Catholic Church at the time, no place of worship could be consecrated unless free from debt and having its fabric completed, so the consecration ceremony did not take place until 28 June, 1910. The interior of the Cathedral, although incomplete, contains fine marble-work and mosaics. The fourteen Stations of the Cross which were produced by the sculptor Eric Gill, and unveiled in 1918, are world renowned. The 30-meter wide piazza outside the front entrance of Westminster Cathedral was created by a re- development of the area in the early 1970s. Before, the façade of the Cathedral had been hidden behind rows of shops on the main road in front of it, Victoria Street. For special occasions, such as the visit of the relics of St Therese of Lisieux to London, the piazza acts as an area of overspill for the congregation. Westminster Council, which is responsible for maintaining the piazza, is currently drawing up designs for a revamp of the area. On 30 November 1995, at the invitation of Cardinal Basil Hume, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited Westminster Cathedral to attend an ecumenical service.