LONDON (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0British\u00a0Catholics welcomed the presence of King Charles III and top royals at the Sept. 16 funeral Mass for the Duchess of Kent, a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0convert, the first such ceremony in the once-persecuted church\u2019s main cathedral.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis historic event will help renew the link between the monarchy and Catholicism which was broken at the Reformation,\u201d said Timothy Guile, chairman of the English\u00a0Catholic\u00a0History Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have watched on TV as the king participated in a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0requiem, something once unthinkable, which shows our church is no longer strange or alien.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Catholic\u00a0historian was following the funeral for Katharine, Duchess of Kent, in Westminster Cathedral, attended not only by King Charles but the Prince of Wales and dozens of royal family members as well.<\/p>\n
Queen Camilla pledged \u201cthoughts and prayers\u201d after being prevented by health problems from attending the Mass, the first royal event in the neo-Byzantine Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood since it opened in 1903.<\/p>\n
In an OSV News interview, Guile said it was important the duchess had remained a \u201cfully accepted part of the royal family\u201d after she became a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0in 1994, despite continuing tensions over the\u00a0Catholic\u00a0Church\u2019s historic exclusion.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another prominent\u00a0Catholic\u00a0told OSV News the unprecedented cathedral ceremony would raise the profile of\u00a0British\u00a0Catholics, who officially faced criminal sanctions for practicing their faith until the repeal of recusancy laws in 1888.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile no one can know what the king personally thinks about our church, he\u2019s always been sympathetic and conciliatory towards Catholics,\u201d said Josephine Siedlecka, editor of the London-based Independent\u00a0Catholic\u00a0News agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis first\u00a0Catholic\u00a0funeral for a senior royal \u2014 someone who accompanied pilgrims to the Marian sanctuary of Lourdes and was involved in many charitable and pastoral activities \u2013 is highly significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The duchess, who died at Kensington Palace Sept. 4 at age 92, was born Katharine Lucy Mary Worsley into an Anglican baronet\u2019s family in Yorkshire and married Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth, in 1961.<\/p>\n
Her funeral Mass, led by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, chairman of the bishops\u2019 conference of England and Wales, included typically\u00a0Catholic\u00a0prayers, read by her grandchildren, for the pope and deceased friends and relatives.<\/p>\n
In a message, read by the Vatican nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Buendia, Pope Leo pledged \u201cprayerful closeness\u201d to the king and family members, and praised the duchess\u2019s \u201clegacy of Christian goodness,\u201d evident in \u201cmany years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in his homily, Auxiliary Bishop James Curry of Westminster praised the duchess\u2019s gift for \u201ccompassion, empathy, forgiveness and reconciliation,\u201d recalling her work as a primary school teacher, as well as with the armed forces, sick children, the homeless and the Samaritans \u2014 a charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.<\/p>\n
The bishop said the duchess had been \u201cfortified by the Rites of the Church\u201d and lived \u201ca life of dignity, bravery and faith\u201d after being received as a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0with the queen\u2019s consent by Cardinal Basil Hume.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuided by Cardinal Hume and others, Katharine continued a personal spiritual journey that had begun in the Church of England,\u201d Bishop Curry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs is true for every human soul, that spiritual journey involved a search for wholeness, healing, inner peace and, ultimately, for God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catholics remain barred from royal succession in Britain under a 1701 Act of Settlement, which followed the deposition of James II, the last openly\u00a0Catholic\u00a0king, and formalized a constitutional link between the monarchy and the Anglican Church of England.<\/p>\n
Two previous kings, James I and Charles I, had foreign-born\u00a0Catholic\u00a0consorts, while King Charles II (1630-1685) became a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0on his deathbed.<\/p>\n
Two granddaughters of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria (1887-1969) and Princess Beatrice (1884-1966), became Catholics in 1906 and 1913, respectively, after marrying into the Spanish royal family.<\/p>\n
However, serving royals in Britain were barred from marrying Catholics until a 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, which also abolished male-preference primogeniture.<\/p>\n
Charles III inherited the title of supreme governor of the Church of England and pledged to protect the church\u2019s \u201crights and privileges\u201d and \u201cuphold the Protestant religion\u201d at his May 2023 Westminster Abbey coronation.<\/p>\n
However, he attended the 2005 Rome funeral of St. John Paul II and the 2019 canonization of St. John Henry Newman, and he has visited other\u00a0Catholic\u00a0landmarks, including London\u2019s Farm Street Jesuit center and St. Newman\u2019s Oratory of St. Philip Neri, which he toured on Sept. 3.<\/p>\n
Other\u00a0Catholic\u00a0royals include German-born Princess Michael of Kent and the Duchess of Kent\u2019s son Lord Nicholas Windsor, honorary vice president of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham and a prominent critic of abortion, who became a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0in 2001.<\/p>\n
In an OSV News interview, the chairman of Britain\u2019s Latin Mass Society, Joseph Shaw, said celebrity converts served as \u201cimportant witnesses to the faith\u201d and helped attract \u201cattention and prestige\u201d to the\u00a0Catholic\u00a0Church.<\/p>\n
He added that royal participation in the duchess\u2019s cathedral funeral would help \u201cwater down\u201d lingering anti-Catholic\u00a0prejudices and assist the church\u2019s \u201cgradual rehabilitation,\u201d but also warned that Britain\u2019s political establishment remained \u201cresolutely unchristian.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Guile said the \u201cunprecedented gesture\u201d coincided with an increase in practicing Catholics across Britain and would fuel pressure for a new act of Parliament to separate the monarchy from the Church of England.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatholics have made a huge historical contribution here \u2014 they\u2019re as patriotically\u00a0British\u00a0as anyone else,\u201d the\u00a0Catholic\u00a0History Association chairman told OSV News.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are taking more notice now of our bishops, because of their firm stand on moral and ethical issues, as Catholics help fill a vacuum in the public consciousness,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s\u00a0Catholic\u00a0weekly, The Tablet, said the king\u2019s first formal attendance at a\u00a0Catholic\u00a0Mass in Britain marked \u201cone of the most significant moments in recent\u00a0Catholic\u00a0history.\u201d<\/p>\n
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