Monday sees the Requiem Mass followed by burial at Killingbeck of long time MC for the Latin Mass Community. Mass at St. Anthony's, Old Lane, Beeston at 1.00 p.m.
(James) Walter Atkinson
From the very early days of the reaction to the
sweeping changes in the Catholic Church of the sixties and seventies, Walter
(as he was always called) despite being baptized James, was for many years at
the forefront of keeping the old Latin Mass a show on the road. He never
interfered in the musical side of things, he never attempted to organise
priests to say Mass or beg the use of churches or chapels. Others were there to
attend to that. Walter was the man who served – served at the altar, guiding
and helping priests and training altar servers through long and complex rules
and rubrics to make sure that things went smoothly and looked as best they
could in times which were generally trying and often disheartening. Walter
never showed signs of fatigue or despondency when the going got tough. As the
old song says when the going gets tough the tough get going.
Walter was a disciplined man. His time in Germany whilst
doing his National Service in North Rhine Westphalia immediately after the war
along with his medical training taught him that discipline and calmness, which
he exuded most of the time. On the odd occasion people thoughtlessly rubbed him
up the wrong way he became a formidable opponent, but he never lost Christian
charity, slow to real anger and always able to laugh about it afterwards.
After National Service he spent some years as a nursing
brother at Scorton in North Yorkshire which was a pioneering establishment in
the 1950s. Originally established in the 1850s in France, with
the intention of creating a foundation for ‘unwanted people’, ‘cripples and
incurables’, Walter was known in the religious life as Brother Noel Which
always amused him. After a lengthy period of discernment, he decided that the religious life was not for
him and he left the Order to take up nursing professionally. In this field he
excelled. Further studies and hours of hard work saw him become the head of the
hospital training school at Meanwood where he was revered as an invariably fair
but firm and immensely likeable taskmaster. He trained many nurses in his time
there including two daughters of the notorious Idi Amin who served as the third president
of Uganda from 1971 to 1979 and de facto military dictator. He
is considered one of the most brutal despots in world history. Walter knew who
the girls were (and moreover who their father was) and of them he simply said
they were sound students who nursed with compassion. On one occasion
one of these daughters was late getting to school she met Walter walking up
the path and apologised for being late to school. In true style Walter told her
not to worry. “I am the school”, he said!
When Bishop Konstant relaxed
restrictions on the Latin Mass in 1988 we were allowed use of the generally
unused Cemetery Chapel at Killingbeck, where Walter’s human remains will spend the rest of time. There was very little by way of vestments and equipment
to celebrate Mass in a dignified fashion and over the next twenty odd years,
till there was further easing of restrictions against the old Mass, Walter
provided, out of his own pocket, everything imaginable to make the celebration
fitting and worthy of worshipping God in the traditional Catholic manner. The
vestments used at his requiem were made by Walter at his home on a sewing machine
at the kitchen table, along with similar sets in red, green, white, gold, rose
and purple. He bought a photocopier and spent hour upon hour making booklets,
altar cards, pamphlets, instruction manuals, hymn sheets, checklists and aids
to memory for priests and servers. He bought sacred vessels, candles,
candlesticks, incense, a thurible and all manner of things which are still used
today in the many places we are now thankfully permitted to still have the old
Mass. His efforts have been rewarded.
At the same time he was a
voracious reader and spent hours tracing his family tree – not only the
Atkinsons on his father’s side but the Cookes on his mother’s side. Writing to
the Scottish Registry of births, deaths and marriages he was amused to learn
that one of his great grandfathers had died from “the effects of the abuse of
ardent liquor”.
His knowledge of art,
history, nature, human anatomy and physiology were way above those of the
average man.
Walter wasn’t a man who
abused ardent liquor but he was always at the hospital parties and rarely
missed a Friday night out with his friends and colleagues in local pubs. He
said he hated turning up to a party to find others had had a “skin-full” and
did all that was necessary to catch up with them.
Such was the man.
Kind to all who sought his
help, sociable, he was a faithful son of the Church and a very decent and honest man.
He looked after his mother for many years as she was ravaged by the effects of
dementia. He only ever left her – pinned to the chair – to keep her safe,
whilst he went to his Latin Mass on a Sunday afternoon. It helped him to keep
his sanity he said.
May he rest in peace.
I understand Fr. Aladics is still unwell and so no Mass on Tuesday at Ossett.
No Mass either at St. Winefride's on Wednesday as Mgr Grogan is also ill and so he was unable to offer Mass today at St. Patrick's. Many thanks to Canon Wiley for stepping in to cover for him.
Masses on Thursday at 9.30 a.m. at St. Anthony's, Clayton and at St. Joseph's, Back Street, Pontefract at 7.00 p.m. The Mass at Pontefract will be a requiem for Walter Atkinson.
Mass on Friday at 7.30 p.m. at St. Austin's, Wakefield.
