Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI at Maiden Lane

Yesterday evening I watched online the Requiem Mass for Pope Benedict XVI at the church of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane, off Covent Garden in London. This advertised by the Latin Mass Society to mark the first anniversary of his death.

Here was the Traditional Liturgy so dear to the heart of the late Holy Father celebrated with reverence and appropriate Tridentine austerity. The homily, about celebrating the Mass as an answer asserting the Resurrection in the face of death, was a reading from a collection of ordination and related sermons by the then Cardinal Ratzinger. This was, I assume, Teaching and Learning the Love of God: Being a Priest Today published by Ignatius Press.

Corpus Christi Maiden Lane is now the designated church of the LMS as well as having a long established association with groups for Catholic Actors and for the Police, as well as being since 2018 the Westminster Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament - which indeed was how Cardinal Manning spoke of it when it was first established.

I have only visited the church once to attend Mass with friends. That was some years ago and the church had at that time a rather tired look, its original brickwork covered in modern, bland, paint. However the restoration project had just commenced by cleaning the entrance porch brickwork which had been brought back to its original appearance. Watching the Mass tonight and looking at pictures online it is now a joy to see it all restored to that original 1870s scheme. That made it a very suitable church in my view to offer this Mass for the late Pope, much of whose energy was devoted to restoration in the life and liturgy of the Church. Maiden Lane today is a fine analogy of the life’s work of Joseph Ratzinger.

The restoration work was completed in 2018 but further enhancements to the church in its decoration have been made subsequently and are indeed continuing.

Wikipedia illustrates the restored interior and recounts the history of the church at Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, Maiden Lane

The fact that it is built on land leased by the Bedford estate is interesting and ironic in that historically the Russell family were leading, sometimes strident, advocates of Whiggish Protestantism and anti-Catholicism up to and including Lord John Russell in the mid-nineteenth century.

The parish website also has a good introduction to the history of the church as well as other information and is to be found at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, Maiden Lane

     

         The restored sanctuary and choir of 

               Corpus Christi Maiden Lane.
                        Image: Wikipedia 

One thing I sensed on my visit was the way that the church on its rather restricted site but still nevertheless with a splendid array of statues, shrines, and pricket stands, whilst being undeniably, unashamedly, and confidently High Victorian in its aesthetic, evoked what must have been the atmosphere and character, the sense of prayer and purpose, of a pre-reformation parish church in cities such as  London and York.

Pray for the soul of Pope Benedict XVI and for his canonisation.