A REQUIEM Mass for Bishop Henry Joseph Kennedy, the first Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane, was celebrated in St Stephen’s Cathedral on September 10.
Bishop Kennedy, who went on to head Armidale diocese before retiring in 1991, died peacefully in his sleep at Nazareth House, Tamworth on September 3, aged 88.
Bishop Michael Putney of Townsville was the principal celebrant and Bulimba parish administrator, Fr Harry Bliss, gave the homily at the Brisbane requiem Mass.
Fr Bliss, as vocations director and bursar at Banyo Seminary, collaborated many times with Bishop Kennedy during the four years he was Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane.
He described Bishop Kennedy as a man who did a lot of smiling.
Bishop Kennedy’s first appointment was as the first auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Patrick O’Donnell in 1967.
He was the first Australian-born bishop to officiate in Brisbane archdiocese.
At a public farewell celebration in April 1972, three months after he was installed as Bishop of Armidale, Bishop Kennedy attended a packed Doomben Racecourse to say farewell to the people of Brisbane he had come to know so well.
His requiem Mass coincided with a funeral Mass at St Mary and Joseph’s Cathedral, Armidale, where Bishop Kennedy’s body was interred in the cathedral grounds.
