His Eminence John Carmel Heenan
Cardinal,Archbishop of Westminster
Province	Westminster
Diocese	Westminster
Appointed	2 September 1963
Term ended	7 November 1975
Predecessor	William Godfrey
Successor	Basil Hume
Other post	Cardinal-Priest of San Silvestro in Capite
Previous posts	Bishop of Leeds (1951–1957) Archbishop of Liverpool (1957–1963)
Orders
Ordination	6 July 1930 by Arthur Henry Doubleday
Consecration	27 January 1951 by William Godfrey
Created cardinal	22 February 1965 byPaul VI
Rank	Cardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born	(1905-01-26)26 January 1905 Ilford,Essex
Died	7 November 1975(1975-11-07) (aged 70) London, England
Buried	Westminster Cathedral
Nationality	British
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Motto	Sub umbra carmeli
Coat of arms

John Carmel Heenan (26 January 1905 – 7 November 1975) was a senior-ranking Englishprelate of theCatholic Church. He served asArchbishop of Westminster from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to thecardinalate in 1965.^[1]

John Heenan was born inIlford,Essex, the youngest of four children ofIrish parents John and Anne Heenan (née Pilkington). He auditioned forWestminster CathedralChoir School at age 9, butSir Richard Terry rejected him for his "metallic voice".^[2] Heenan studied atSt. Ignatius College inStamford Hill,Ushaw College inDurham, and theVenerable English College in Rome before beingordained to the priesthood on 6 July 1930. He then didpastoral work inBrentwood until 1947, at which time he becameSuperior of the Catholic Missionary Society ofEngland and Wales. In this position, Heenan criticized the United States for being too concerned about communism, and not enough about spiritual matters.^[3] By this time he had published a biography (1943) ofCardinal Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, who had recently died.

On 27 January 1951, Heenan was appointed the fifthBishop of Leeds byPope Pius XII. He received hisepiscopal consecration on the following 12 March from ArchbishopWilliam Godfrey,Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, withJoseph McCormack,Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, andJohn Petit,Bishop of Menevia, serving asco-consecrators. Named the sixthArchbishop of Liverpool on 2 May 1957, Heenan was later appointed the eighthArchbishop of Westminster on 2 September 1963. As Archbishop of Westminster, he served as the spiritual leader of theCatholic Church in England and Wales. In 1968, Heenan was elected President of theCatholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

A participant of theSecond Vatican Council (1962–1965), Heenan showed himself to be of a conservative mind. He opposedGaudium 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".^[4] He also condemned theperiti, or theological experts, who sought to change the church's doctrine onbirth control.^[4] Moreover, despite the risks toecumenism, Heenan later supported thecanonization of theforty martyrs.^[5]

He was createdCardinal-Priest ofS. Silvestro in Capite byPope Paul VI in theconsistory of 22 February 1965.

He died from a heart attack in London^[6] at age 70, and is buried in Westminster Cathedral, under thetwelfth Station of the Cross ("Jesusdies on theCross").

Heenan shared a lengthy correspondence with authorEvelyn Waugh regarding the Second Vatican Council. A compilation of their letters,A Bitter Trial: Evelyn Waugh and John Carmel Cardinal Heenan on the Liturgical Changes, was first published in 1996 and reprinted in an expanded edition in 2011.^[7]

• "A church that is half empty is half full."^[8]
• "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."^[9]

• Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church profile

• 1905 births
• 1975 deaths
• Participants in the Second Vatican Council
• People from Ilford
• People educated at St Ignatius' College, Enfield
• Roman Catholic archbishops of Liverpool
• Roman Catholic archbishops of Westminster
• 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in the United Kingdom
• Cardinals created by Pope Paul VI
• Alumni of Ushaw College
• 20th-century British cardinals
• Roman Catholic bishops of Leeds
• English College, Rome alumni
• British Roman Catholic archbishops
• English people of Irish descent

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2022
• Pages using S-rel template with ca parameter