The King will next week become the first monarch to attend a Catholic funeral in Britain in an official capacity since the Reformation more than 400 years ago.
Charles, who is head of the Church of England, will attend a Requiem Mass at Westminster Cathedral — the largest Catholic church in England and Wales — for the Duchess of Kent.
Katharine Kent, as she preferred to be known, who died on Thursday aged 92, converted to Catholicism in 1994, after many years of soul-searching, ill health and tragedy. She was the first member of the royal family to do so since King Charles II’s deathbed conversion in 1685.
While the King has previously attended Mass, he has never done so in Britain
STEFAN ROUSSEAU/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales alongside most members of the royal family will also attend the service on September 16 at Westminster Cathedral, near Passage, its linked homeless shelter where the duchess used to volunteer.
It is understood the Duke of Sussex, who is scheduled to be in the UK from Monday to Thursday this week, will decide in the coming days whether to also attend.
The Duchess’s widower, the Duke of Kent, is Queen Elizabeth’s cousin and grandson of George V and is now the oldest member of the royal family at 89.
Catherine Pepinster, former editor of the Catholic weekly, The Tablet, and author of Defenders of the Faith: the British monarchy, religion and the Coronation, said: “The funeral will be of great historical significance.
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“There were signs of rapprochement between the monarchy and the Catholic Church under Elizabeth II — she met many popes — but was careful not to attend a Catholic Mass in this country.
“The King and the heir to the throne attending Mass in Britain — that is of an entirely different order. This is a huge step forward in ecumenical relations.”
While the King has previously attended Mass, he has never done so in Britain. For example, he attended the canonisation in Rome of John Henry Newman in 2019 and the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. In April, Charles and Camilla also met Pope Francis privately at the Vatican during their Italy state visit, and prayed with him, just days before he died.
Queen Elizabeth II attended the Catholic state funeral of King Baudouin of the Belgians, in St Michael’s Cathedral in Brussels, in 1993.
The Duke and Duchess of Kent married at York Minster in 1961
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Lord Nicholas Windsor, the duchess’s youngest son is a Catholic convert and the Earl of St Andrews, her oldest son is married to Sylvana Tomaselli, a Catholic.
The British monarchy’s complex relationship with Catholicism began with Pope Clement VII’s 1527 refusal of Henry VIII’s request for a divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn.
In 1534, Henry formalised England’s schism from Rome with the Act of Supremacy. During the reigns of his children Edward VI and Elizabeth I, Protestant zeal grew and Elizabeth became the first Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
Pepinster said: “From the time of Elizabeth I, monarchs have been expected to stand up for the Church of England and reject the Church of Rome.”
The Duchess of Kent was received into the Catholic church in January 1994 by Cardinal Basil Hume, then Archbishop of Westminster, after consulting the Queen. The Act of Settlement of 1701 barred royals who became or married Catholics from the line of succession but the Duke of Kent was unaffected by his wife’s decision because she was Protestant at the time of their marriage in 1961.
In an interview given [to The Daily Telegraph] in 1997, the duchess described the decision as “fairly impulsive”. “I am not going to pretend that it was anything to do with reading the Bible. It had a great deal to do with people I met.”
Katharine, who is said to have gained the late Queen’s approval, added: “I do love guidelines, and the Catholic Church offers you guidelines. I have always wanted that in my life: I like to know what is expected of me.”
Her announcement emphasised that her decision was not connected to controversy about the ordination of women in the Church of England which was raging at the time. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York issued a joint statement that said it was the decision “of a devout Christian on a spiritual journey”.