With great sadness we report the death of Dom Peter Fell who died of cancer Saturday 3rd May 2003. Until his death he served as Parish Priest of Bromyard, and will be much missed by his community, family and parishioners.

Homily at the Requiem Mass for Dom Peter Fell
Belmont Abbey - 9th May 2003

"Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen." According to St Luke this is what the two men in brilliant clothes said to the myrrh-bearing women who at the first sign of dawn on the first day of the week found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Jesus was no longer there.

A Requiem Mass is like any other Mass, a memorial and a celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Sacred Mysteries we participate fully, we become immersed in the very mystery of Christ. We become members of his living Body, the Church, so that like St Paul we can proclaim, "Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made manifest in Christ Jesus our Lord." But a Requiem Mass is also a very special Mass, a Mass like no other. For here, in his coffin, lies the body of our friend and brother, Dom Peter Fell. We offer this Mass, asking God to have mercy on his soul and to open for him the gates of Paradise. "All those who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name," we heard St Peter say in the first reading.

Peter's sudden death came as a shock to us all. We all knew he had terminal cancer but hoped, like Peter himself, that he might live another six months or even more. Recent treatment seemed to have had a good effect. Peter was the most practical of men and the most straightforward. Chatting with him a few days before he died, we discussed how we would manage his final weeks. But it was not to be. God stepped in and said, "I am managing this one." In the course of our conversation Peter said, "I've not been a very good monk. Somehow I don't think I can do much to make up for it in the next few months!" I am no judge of what makes a good monk. One thing is certain. Each one of us is a great mystery, even to ourselves, which is hardly surprising when you consider that we have all been created in the image and likeness of the great Mystery himself, Almighty God, the Three in One and One in Three. What Peter said about himself was typical of a man who knew well where he stood in the sight of God. Peter was no Pharisee! His love for Christ was rock solid and he was faithful to his daily prayer, especially to his lectio divina, that contemplative reading of Sacred Scripture, that constitutes the most important element of a monk's life and prepares his heart and mind for everything else.

Peter was born in Bradford on 28th March 1930, one of five children born to Leonard and Alma Fell. His father was a police constable, a poorly paid job in those days, and Peter learned from an early age what it meant to be poor, to live frugally and to go without. Later on, when he was Bursar at Belmont, his brethren often found him difficult to deal with and there could be rows. "We were for ever looking for new ways to try and get money out of him for the school," one housemaster told me. Peter, with his strong social conscience, was offended by luxury and waste, particularly in monks.

He came from a strong Catholic family and two of his maternal uncles, George and William Rowe, were Canons Regular of the Lateran. Through their influence he was sent to their school, St Augustine's at Datchet, where he became head boy. On leaving school he joined the novitiate of the Canons Regular at St Mary's Priory, Bodmin, where one of his fellow novices was our dear friend, Br Donald Halliday, now in this 90s. That was in April 1947, but Peter decided that a Canon Regular's life was not for him. He came to Belmont and was clothed by Abbot Aidan Williams in June 1948 and given the name Benet. Fr Denis Mercer was his Novice Master. Peter was tall, slim and very handsome, a striking figure, particularly in tennis whites, with his auburn hair that stood out a mile. "Titian with the light shining through it," is how his mother described it. The kitchen girls looked eagerly through the windows as he walked by, but he was so shy. "You only had to look at him and he'd blush," one of them told me yesterday.

He was simply professed by Abbot Anselm Lightbound a year later and made his solemn profession with Fr Dominic and Fr Stephen on St Michael's Day 1952. They didn't do too much Theology in those days and he was ordained priest by Archbishop McGrath on 25th April 1954 together with Fr Aelred. It was a great joy to take Aelred over to Bromyard a fortnight ago today and concelebrate Mass with them both on the 49th anniversary of their ordination.

Although Peter was intelligent and very talented, he was not sent to university. Money was short and he was put prematurely into teaching. In his own words he was "disastrous in the classroom". So he was sent to assist the Bursar, which he did from 1950 until 1961 when he became Bursar himself, a post he held until 1967. In this, as in everything he did, he was conscientious, prudent, reliable, hardworking and honest. He also planned carefully for the future. He loathed wasting money and realised that what Belmont most needed were sound investments. He bought Meryhill Farm with its 400 acres, an asset that was sold off when, a few years later, Belmont was strapped for cash as the school expanded. The Bursar's job is a difficult one and, as I said, it frequently brought him into conflict with his brethren.

He was a talented musician and played the violin in local orchestras, on one occasion under the baton of Sir Adrian Boult. He remained passionately interested in music all his life and built up a vast collection of tapes and records. In the parishes he served he encouraged musicians, formed folk groups and got as many people as possible to take part in the preparation and performance of the liturgy. He was a fine printer and started up the Kemble Press, which continued to work until very recently, killed off, unfortunately, by desktop publishing. He was also a keen photographer. He was, of course, a heavy smoker and enjoyed his drink. He had many interests which he pursued in his quiet and efficient way.

Disenchanted by the way things were going, he left Belmont in 1967, having been advised by Fr Wilfred Passmore, Head Master of Downside, to take a break. He was in the wilderness for 18 months, but he came through where so many other priests and religious have given up altogether. "These are the trials in which we triumph by the power of him who loved us," we heard St Paul say in the second reading, and Peter is living proof of that. It is strange how in God's mysterious plan for each one of us, monks often have to leave the cloister in order to receive the kiss of life!

In January 1969 he became National Chaplain to the YCS, the Young Christian Student movement and did 4 years invaluable pastoral work with young adults. Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham was one of his protégées. Now Peter became seriously involved in social and political issues: human rights, unemployment, poverty, the Third World, justice and peace, the protection of the unborn child, family life, students' rights, prison reform, nuclear disarmament and so on. He knew and was always faithful to the social teaching of the Catholic Church. I remember so well the retreat he gave Fr Michael and myself before our first vows in 1970.

By the time Abbot Jerome, in an inspired move, appointed him Parish Priest of St David's, Swansea, in January 1973, Peter had studied and assimilated the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. That, together with his pastoral experience with the YCS, enabled him to transform the life of the old city centre parish that had all but lost the original Catholic ghetto that surrounded it. He was a Yorkshire man in the heart of Welsh Wales, but he soon got people involved in catechetics, liturgy and the mission of the Church to students, the housebound, prisoners, immigrants and travelling folk. His work with tinkers and gypsies in particular became a cause celebre. Peter was never afraid to speak his mind or to preach the Gospel. He was not a man willing to compromise his principles. He helped set up Swansea Sound, the first local radio station in Wales. St David's became under Peter what it still is today, a vibrant praying community. It was he who established the first Parish Advisory Council. His policy was to have an open house, his belief being that the priory or the presbytery should be home to the parish community, and all this in spite of his proverbial shyness and awkwardness with people.

After 8 fruitful years in Swansea, where he is still remembered by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, for he was genuinely ecumenical and worked assiduously at grassroots level for the unity of the Church, he was asked by Abbot Jerome to go to St Begh's, Whitehaven. He moved north to Cumbria in the Spring of 1981 to replace Fr Luke, who had been appointed superior of the Peru foundation. He was to remain at Whitehaven for 11 years. West Cumbria is an area more traditionally Catholic than South Wales, and yet the people of Whitehaven, like the people of Swansea, are naturally affectionate, hospitable, generous and respectful of their priests. There was a lot of hard work to be done, especially with the maintenance of 19th century buildings. The priory and the church were renovated and St Begh's magnificent parish church tastefully adapted for the modern liturgy. In both parishes he carried out a detailed census. A street map on the office wall could soon reveal the whereabouts of the town's Catholics and the level of their practice. He was to do the same in Hereford, an invaluable instrument for future incumbents and pastoral teams. At St Begh's, as elsewhere, the laity were fully involved in the administration, ministry and mission of the Church. Of course, not everything was a bed of roses. His intention to sell Quay Street met with strong opposition and he shelved the idea, after all it was the people's parish, not the priest's.

In 1992 Abbot Alan asked him to move south again, this time to Hereford and the parish of St Francis Xavier with St Anne's, Bartestree, recently taken on by the Belmont community at the request of the Archbishop of Cardiff. Although Peter was only here for 2 years, his experience and vision breathed new life into old bones. So much more might have been achieved had he been allowed to stay longer, but in 1994, with the closure of the school, Abbot Mark appointed Fr Christopher and Fr Antony to SFX, and asked Peter to return to Belmont as Bursar, with the added responsibility of the small rural parish of Bromyard.

After so many years out of the monastery, this proved to be pretty unbearable, so like a good monk (or perhaps not a good one, as he thought) he asked permission to live at Bromyard, which he did, and lived there very happily, transforming it with the help of enthusiastic parishioners into the very model of a modern parish. He was also Chaplain to St Richard's School, a source of great joy to him. At Bromyard, as elsewhere, he was universally loved and respected. And so he died in harness, God's last and gracious gift to him in this life.

Peter lived and breathed the spirit of Vatican II, and yet, deep down, he was a genuinely traditional, cradle Catholic. He did things carefully and methodically according to the book, which might be the Bible, the Code of Canon Law, the Constitutions of the English Benedictine Congregation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Decrees of the Second Vatican Council. He was meticulous with accounts and for many years was Economus of the Belmont Abbey Mission Trust.

Like Pope John Paul II he travelled widely and was fascinated by the Church in developing countries. He came to Peru with Abbot Jerome and myself in 1980. He visited Uganda several times and whichever countries he could take in on the way. Would you walk around Khartoum alone in the early hours of the morning? Peter had no fear. He raised money for a generator for Fr Aelred's monastery in Tororo and then went out to Uganda to install it himself. He was very generous with his own things, too. When he and Aelred celebrated their Silver Jubilees, he gave Aelred half of everything he had been given. He went to Sri Lanka to visit Fr Ignatius, a young priest he had supported in his studies, and when Ignatius was sent to work in Argentina, Peter went down to the land of Evita Peron and was amazed by what he saw, a Church so alive that he couldn't stop writing and talking about it. And he loved that motto so often used in the Young Churches, "Give from your poverty and God will do the rest."

There is so much more that could be said. Could I just end by expressing our condolences to Peter's family and many friends? You have lost a loved one on earth but will surely, one day, gain a friend in heaven. Could I also thank all those who have written to pay tribute to Peter's life and work? This magnificent gathering is surely witness to what he meant to so many friends and parishioners. I thank Archbishop Peter for his presence with us today and for coming to Bromyard on Sunday. I thank Bishop Mark and all of you who have come from near and far to be with us and with Peter at this important moment of transition.

We are here, as St Paul said, because "Christ Jesus not only died for us - he rose from the dead and there at God's right hand he stands and pleads for us". Sweet Jesus, have mercy on his soul. Holy Mary, Mother of God, lead him by the hand as your dear child into the arms of his heavenly Father. St Michael, St. Joseph, St Peter, St Benedict, St David, St Begh and St Francis Xavier, pray for him. Amen