It is with sad news we announce the death of Fr Francis Press who passed peacefully at Northwick Park Hospital on the morning of 4 May 2025 – the Third Sunday of Easter – having been admitted last Tuesday from Whitby Dene Care Home in Ruislip. He was receiving end of life care.
Fr Francis was born in London on 5 September 1955 and was ordained on 16 May 1981.
Condolences are extended to Fr Francis’s family, friends and colleagues, the staff and residents at Whitby Dene and to parishioners who recall him from his time in the parishes in which he served – Poplar, Kenton, Puckeridge, Hendon and Cranford.
Fr Francis’ mortal remains will be received at the church of St John Fisher, Harrow North on Wednesday 4 June at 5pm. There will be a Requiem Mass at 7pm celebrated by Bishop Paul McAleenan.
The Funeral Mass will be at the same church on Thursday 5 June at 12noon with Bishop Paul McAleenan presiding and Mgr Jim Overton giving the homily. Burial will follow at Pinner New Cemetery at 2pm.
We pray for the peaceful repose of Fr Francis’s soul:
Hear with favour our prayers,
which we humbly offer, O Lord,
for the salvation of the soul of Fr Francis your servant and priest,
that he, who devoted a faithful ministry to your name,
may rejoice in the perpetual company of your saints.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
At the time Fr Francis passed to eternal life his mother, Mary Press, was at Mass and heard the Prayer after Communion:
Look with kindness upon your people, O Lord,
and grant, we pray,
that those you were pleased to renew by eternal mysteries
may attain in their flesh
the incorruptible glory of the resurrection.
Through Christ our Lord.
May the soul of Fr Francis, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
