Monday 5 October 2026 marked 75 years since the inauguration of the St. Mary of the Angels Torchlight Procession. As ever the night was a lovely occasion, with the celebrant this year being the Bishop of Leeds and Apostolic Administrator of the Middlesbrough and Hallam Dioceses, the The Rt. Rev. Marcus Stock.
Since I have already written about the 1st and 2nd processions, for this post I thought I’d write about the third event which took place on 5 October 1953, exactly 73 years to the day of Monday’s event.
This 1953 occasion was the first procession to be held on the now traditional day of the first Monday in October. Organised by St. Mary’s parish priest Father Laurence Gallon, the celebrant for the 1953 event was The Rt. Rev. John Carmel Heenan, Bishop of Leeds. He later became Archbishop of Liverpool, then Archbishop of Westminster, and in 1965 was created a Cardinal.
Carrying torches and headed by the Bishop and clergy, Catholics from Batley, Dewsbury, Batley Carr, Bradford, Cleckheaton, and even as far away as Goole, Manchester, Liverpool, Blackpool and Hull sang the Lourdes hymn (the same hymn as is still sung at the procession today) as they walked from St. Mary’s Church, Cross Bank to the Market Place. Wending its way via Cemetery Road, Clerk Green, Wellington Street and Commercial Street, it took almost half-an-hour for the mile long procession to reach its Market Place destination.
As it entered the Market Place the procession began to zig-zag across the market square, copying the style of those taking part in the Lourdes pilgrimage route.
Hundreds of onlookers, among them many Catholic who could not take part in the procession, crowded on the pavements on each side of the square. When everyone had assembled, they joined those in the centre, and by the time the Bishop gave his address from the elaborate, flower-bedecked altar erected there, the numbers assembled topped 3,000. This included a seated section for old people, invalids and others who could not take part in the procession.
A slight mist reflected the light from the torches and from the brilliantly lit altar, showing up clearly the faces of those at vantage points in the upper storeys of the library and police station.
In a short address Dr. Heenan explained the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and asked all – Catholic and Protestant – to turn to Mary, the Mother of Christ, and beg her to intercede with her Son that the blessing of peace might be upon them all.
It was inspiring and encouraging, he said, to see how many had come to show their devotion to the Mother of Our Lord.
It was fitting that the demonstration of faith should be taking place so soon after the announcement of the Pope’s wish that the next year should be a “Marian year” – in other words a special year long devotion to honour the Mother of God. The demonstration in Batley that evening was, so to speak, a prieview of what would come worldwide in 1954.
The occasion, of course, was the centenary of the Declaration of the Immaculate Conception. A hundred years ago that dogma was proclaimed. It was a dogma which was so simple yet so little understood. It proclaimed simply that Mary, the Mother of God, was completely without sin. Nothing more.
That was not very strange but yet it had been much misunderstood. “As if God would have allowed the mother of his son to ever have been tainted by sin,” declared Dr. Heenan.
In honour of Mary, therefore, which was only another way of saying honour God – because when they honoured Mary they honoured God – next year was going to be a year of special demonstration.
There were two kinds of demonstrating, friendly and hostile. There were two kinds of demonstrations. When they demonstrated for or against something. That night’s was a friendly demonstration, a demonstration for the ancient faith of this country, Mary’s dowry.
They thought at that moment with gratitude that in this country they were allowed to practice their faith and their thoughts must go to millions of Christians abroad who were not permitted to honour Jesus and His Mother.
They thought of those countries deprived of their pastors, of children in their millions deprived of Christian schools, and they thanked God that here they had freedom to practise their religion and the opportunity of giving their children a Christian education.
The Pope had specially asks them in the coming year to pray for those children throughout the world who were so deprived; to pray for the bishops and priests and the mothers and fathers of families who languished in prison for no other reason than their loyalty to Christ Our Lord.
Above all, the Pope asked them to beg Mary to give them that Grace that all of them might be faithful in the following of Christ.
That, said Dr. Heenan, was the whole meaning of the devotion to the Virgin Mary, she, the purest of creatures, the most perfect model, the most perfect example of the following of Christ.
That night they joined their prayers together that God would bless all the families in Batley, not only Catholic but all those for whom Christ died – that was everyone. Protestants as well.
In his message, the Pope particularly asked Protestants as well as Catholics to join in honouring the Mother of God.
“Let no one think, however, that Christ could be lessened by their words and love of His Mother. No one would be so foolish as to adore Mary most, for she was a creature like themselves. But no one would be so foolish as to ignore Mary for she was one of God, she was closer to Him than any other creature at any other time.”
“As Bishop of this Diocese, I wish you all, Catholic and Protestant, clergy and laity, increase in the love of God, and I wish you His blessing,” concluded Dr. Heenan.
After his address, the Bishop officiated at the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, assisted by the St. Mary’s curates, Father Patrick Creed and Father Denis Monaghan.
Both had arrived at St. Mary’s at the beginning of September 1951 to take up their first appointment as curates since their respective ordinations. The 1953 Torchlight Procession was to be their last major official appearance at St. Mary’s. Just over a month later, on 16 November 1953, they absented themselves without permission for over a week, and following their location did not return to the parish.
Postscript:
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