We are gathered to do reverence to the memory of a great priest, a great apostle, a great Dominican. We are gathered to offer the Holy Sacrifice to God to the end that he may speedily receive into his eternal peace the soul of one who was for all who knew him an inspiration and an example, a veritable man of God, one who was for so many of us a loving father, a patient teacher, a wise counsellor and an understanding friend. It is written in Holy Scripture: Praise not a man before his death, for a man is known by his children. Those of us who knew Father Hugh Pope best have not been able to refrain from praising him even while he yet lived; but now there can be no withholding that praise on the part of any; for he is indeed known by his children, known by the offspring of his apostolic mind, known by the many souls he brought to God, known by the brethren of his Order whom he nurtured by his paternal care and affection.

In his recent allocution to the General Chapter of the Order of Preachers the Holy Father fastened upon the very pillars of true Dominican life when he reminded all Dominicans that, in the words of their Constitutions, they must be ‘resolute in peace, assiduous in study and fervent in preaching’ if they would prove themselves worthy of their honoured name and high calling. When we look back over the long course of Father Hugh's life in the Dominican Order we realise that he set himself from the outset to attain an ideal which he pursued unwaveringly to the very end.