On All Saints Day, Catholics remember the faithful departed who have entered into heaven.

Yesterday, the holy day took on a painful immediacy at St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church in Northeast Philadelphia when one of their own - Police Officer Chuck Cassidy - died less than 24 hours after an armed bandit shot him in the head.

With little notice, scores of parishioners and some fellow police officers turned out for an unscheduled 1 p.m. Mass to pray for Cassidy 's soul and for his family at the church, in the city's Holme Circle section.

Only hours earlier, at morning Masses for All Saints Day, some of them had prayed for Cassidy 's recovery.

"There's a pall over the parish, a sadness," the Rev. Joseph B. Graham, St. Jerome's pastor, said after the special Mass.

Some left the church in tears. Others said they did not want to talk.

Cassidy and his family are well known in the church, and his wife, Judy, volunteered many hours at St. Jerome School, which the couple's three children attended.

Graham said the worshippers included most of the school's teachers, who were off for the holy day but knew Judy Cassidy .

In his sermon, Graham noted that Officer Cassidy 's death coincided with the day the Catholic Church remembers the dead who have entered into heaven.

"It's very fitting that on this All Saints Day that we ask all those wonderful men and women - virtuous men and woman - who have gone before us, and who enjoy the joys of heaven, to reach out their hands and grasp Chuck by his hand and lead him on the rest of his journey from the doors of death into the light of eternity," he said.

"We believe this. This is our faith. This is what gives us hope in our grief and some kind of joy in our sorrow. "

Contact staff writer Joseph Gambardello at 215-854-2153 or jgambardello@phillynews.com