The first reading at the Requiem Mass, Wisdom 3:1-9, was read by Robert Pittenger, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019.
Deacon Damien Wade of Brentwood diocese read the Gospel, John 15:12-17, in which Jesus says: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
In his homily, Canon Pat Browne described the impact of Sir David’s death on his staff.
“Since my appointment to Parliament 12 years ago, David’s office was one place I was always made welcome into for a cup of tea and a chat. So we go back a long way,” said Browne, who officiated at Sir David’s wedding at Westminster Cathedral in 1983 and later baptized his five children.
“Sadly, my last visit to his office was on that awful Friday afternoon. I had just finished a wedding in the Chapel of St. Mary Undercroft in Parliament, and heard the tragic news. I went over immediately to see his staff. They were devastated.”
“There were many tears and it struck me forcefully: these people weren’t just his staff; they were his friends. They loved him. They were his team, his collaborators in the work for the constituents of Southend West.”
“Friendship was David’s great gift to others. Not just to those who worked alongside him and agreed with him, but to everyone in the House [of Commons, the lower house of the U.K. Parliament], including those who did not share his political or religious views.”
Browne recalled the lawmaker’s gift for making others laugh, recalling what he called “the boiled sweet episode,” which occurred when the pope passed the lawmaker in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
“Seeking to pull [his rosary beads] out for the pope to bless, he presented instead a boiled sweet in its packet, which Pope Benedict innocently blessed and moved on,” the priest said.
“His dressing up as a knight and riding on a horse in the streets of Southend when he became Sir David: these things enabled others to laugh with him. His genuine charm, wit, and warmth broke through many barriers as he looked for those things in others that they could agree on and work together.”
He went on: “David was also serious. For him, life was a gift to be gratefully accepted, cherished, nourished, and lived to the full. He took his life in his two hands and threw himself into it. Indeed, he died doing so, in service of others. As today’s Gospel tells us: ‘A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends’… his constituents, his country. David did so.”
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“His Catholic faith informed his passionate commitment to the very right to life, to human dignity, and to the common good. But it was also rooted in his absolute conviction that an MP’s first priority was to their constituents — it was the death of a constituent from hypothermia which led to his successful Private Members’ Bill on fuel poverty.”
The man accused of killing Sir David — Ali Harbi Ali, 25, of Kentish Town in north London — is expected to face trial from March 7, 2022. The British citizen of Somali descent is charged with murder and the preparation of terrorist acts.
The lawmaker’s death sparked a debate about priests’ access to crime scenes to administer the last rites.
Fr. Jeff Woolnough, the pastor of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Eastwood, in Leigh-on-Sea, said that he rushed to Belfairs Methodist Church when he heard that Amess had been attacked.
A police officer outside the church reportedly relayed his request to enter the building, but the priest was not given access. He prayed the rosary outside the police cordon instead.
Following Sir David’s death, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury, western England, called for greater recognition of the last rites as an “emergency service.”
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