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Packed Cathedral bids farewell to Canon Pat Davies


Fr Pat Davies - fourth from left - with members of the Westminster  Diocese Justice and Peace Commission, planting a tree on a sunny day at the National J&P Peace Conference in Derbyshire in July 2003

Fr Pat Davies - fourth from left - with members of the Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission, planting a tree on a sunny day at the National J&P Peace Conference in Derbyshire in July 2003

The front blocks of seats in Westminster Cathedral were full and the Order of Service booklets had ran out a good ten minutes before the funeral of Fr Pat Davies started on Friday 26 February. He was clearly a well-loved parish priest in Westminster Diocese, as the presence of so many former parishioners testified. One row of seats held members of the justice and peace group at Kingsbury Green Parish, for example, whose meetings he joined while their parish priest between 1997 and 2002. For his seventieth birthday in 2008 they gave him a CAFOD 'world gift' of a bike to a community in Malawi - which delighted him - and they visited him regularly until his death on 16 February.

Many present remembered him most fondly as a gentle champion of justice and peace causes in Westminster Diocese and nationally. He was instrumental in the setting up of Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Commission in 2001 and was appointed by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as its first outreach worker. But from 1988, as parish priest in East Finchley, he hosted Justice and Peace annual days and meetings, very often the only priest to be in on every planning session with the lay activists. He rarely missed the annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network Conference in
Derbyshire - once presiding over the conference Mass - even after a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease left him frail and leaning on a walking stick. During his final decline with cancer after August 2009 he was still seeking out news about campaigning events such as 'The Wave' on climate change in December 2009.

He was chaplain to the Catholic Institute for International Relations, now Progressio, for six years in the 1980s, and involved himself in their campaigns up to the present time. But he was close to all the Catholic social justice agencies, very often offering generous hospitality to their visitors from the global south. Through CAFOD he had worked for the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference for a year in 1987 and thrived on regular
contact with prophetic church figures. In May 2009, for example, he hosted Pax Christi AGM speaker South Africa's Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenburg in his Warwick Street parish near Piccadilly Circus. Two months before that he met up with friends at the March 2009 Romero service at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, organised by the Archbishop Romero Trust.

And all these groups were represented at his funeral. Fr Joe Ryan and Barbara Kentish of the Westminster Justice and Peace Commission were joined by other Westminster activists and representatives of Justice and Peace in East Anglia, Southwark and Arundel and Brighton Dioceses. Columban Father Peter Hughes of the National Justice and Peace Network Executive was one of more then 60 priests on the vast altar, sitting alongside Jesuit friends of Fr Pat and many Westminster Diocesan priests. Former National Justice and Peace Network Chairs Rosa Shea and Phil Kerton were present, along with Pax Christi staff. Progressio's current and former directors were there - Christine Allen and Ian Linden - and many CAFOD staff, including Director Chris Bain and his predecessor Julian Filochowski.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols presided over a funeral Mass where the readings and music were chosen by Fr Pat himself to reflect his ministry of service to others and his justice and peace commitment: from the first "swords into ploughshares" reading in Isaiah to the song during the preparation of the gifts - "his justice can flourish and peace till the moon fails" - to the lovely communion hymn, "Bread for the World" by Bernadette Farrell. The South African hymn "Thumamina" reflected his time in that country. The second reading was read by BBC news presenter George Alagiah, who once spoke at a Westminster Justice and Peace Day, in his role as patron of the Fairtrade Foundation. Bidding prayers prayed for the Church, for world peace and for CAFOD, whose Spring Family Fast Day was being celebrated throughout the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

In his homily Bishop George Stack paid tribute to Fr Pat as a "bridge-builder" and "networker", as well as highlighting his work as Assistant General Secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales for five years from 1992. He said Fr Pat was "delighted to be a canon of Westminster Cathedral", proudly accompanying Archbishop Nichols down the aisle at the latter's Mass of Installation there in May 2009.

As the simple coffin left the church there were few dry eyes amongst those who had known Fr Pat over the years. But before that Archbishop Nichols, at the request of Fr Pat, warmly invited "every single person present" into the Westminster Hall next door for refreshments. Fr Pat had wanted everyone to enjoy the company of new people and to share a meal together celebrating his life. As Bishop Stack said in his homily: "May his compassionate and gentle soul rest in peace".


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