By Catherine Pepinster
When the Duchess of Kent’s funeral takes place tomorrow (Tuesday) at Westminster Cathedral, with the King in attendance, it will be an historic moment – the first time that the monarch will have attended a Roman Catholic Mass in Britain since the Reformation.
The King is Supreme Governor of the Church of England and the funeral marks a milestone in ecumenical relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the monarchy. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, avoided such Catholic occasions in this country.
The late Duchess, who died at 92, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1994, and was married to the Duke of Kent, a cousin of Elizabeth II. She was the first member of the Royal Family to join the Catholic Church since 1685.
Buckingham Palace has announced that both the reception of the Duchess’s body into the Cathedral today and the funeral on Tuesday, are private and so will be behind closed doors. The Palace says that this is because it is not a state funeral but a family occasion.
The funeral arrangements suggest a certain hesitancy about how far the new openness should go. Catholic funerals are not usually private – anybody can attend, and given that prayers are said for the soul of the deceased, general mourners, not just family and close friends, are welcome. So private is this funeral that not only are members of the public barred, but only one general reporter from a news agency will be allowed in.
The Requiem Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, the most senior Catholic prelate in England and Wales, assisted by Jim Curry, an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Westminster. Also at the altar will be the Anglican Dean of Windsor, Dr Christopher Cocksworth who will accompany the body to the royal burial ground in Frogmore, where the Duchess will be laid to rest.
Among the moments that will be of most significance ecumenically will be the prayers of commendation during the Mass that recognise both hopefulness that the deceased will journey to heaven but also that they may yet require mourners’ prayers before they reach that happy state.
The form of words would include: “May God grant her a merciful judgement, deliverance from death and pardon of sin”; and “Merciful Lord, turn towards us and listen to our prayers: open the gates of paradise to your servant”.
These effectively highlight the Catholic belief in purgatory and the importance of prayers for the dead, something which the Church of England does not recognise.
Another key moment will be the Sign of Peace, which takes place in Catholic Masses after the consecration, when Catholics believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ.
This “transubstantiation” is not recognised by the Church of England, and until the accession of George V in 1910, the monarch was required to repudiate it.
Another significant moment will come during Holy Communion. There have been times in the past when priests have recognised that at very special personal occasions such as a wedding or a funeral, a non-Catholic member of the family concerned might receive Communion, but this is unlikely here.
What non-Catholics are encouraged to do is to come forward for a blessing, holding their arms across their body in the shape of a cross. If the King presents himself to a Roman Catholic cardinal for a blessing, that will be a remarkable moment.
In 1985, the then Prince Charles, accompanied by his first wife, Diana, visited John Paul II in Rome. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, and Charles thought it suitable for the couple to attend a Mass privately in the Pope’s chapel, with Runcie saying that only “the lunatic fringe” would object. Then, two weeks before the visit, the Queen, concerned that it would be damaging to the Crown’s standing with the Church of England, asked for it to be cancelled.
The closest Queen Elizabeth II got to attending a Catholic Mass in Britain was when she attended vespers at Westminster Cathedral to mark the cathedral’s centenary in 1995, and Charles, as Prince of Wales, attended vespers there to mark the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005.
Until now both the King and his mother only attended Catholic Masses abroad. Elizabeth II attended the funeral of her friend, King Baudouin of the Belgians, on August 7, 1993. It was the only time that she was known to have attended a full Roman Catholic Mass.
The King has attended two Catholic Masses in an official capacity, both abroad: the first was on April 8 2005 when he represented his mother at the funeral of John Paul II in Rome – an event which caused his marriage to Camilla Parker-Bowles to be moved to the following day after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said they were going to Rome.
Then in 2019, Charles went to Rome again, this time to attend the canonisation of the former Anglican cleric and Catholic cardinal, now Saint, John Henry Newman.
More recently, on 4 September, the King visited Newman’s former room at the Oratory of St Philip Neri and was shown some of the saint’s relics. He was also shown the handwritten manuscript of the Dream of Gerontius, which Elgar later set to music.
Other signs of continued thawing of relations between the monarchy and the Catholic Church include the participation of Cardinal Vincent Nichols in the King’s Coronation in 2023, saying a prayer and invoking a blessing, while the papal nuncio also attended. A cross given by Pope Francis led the King’s procession.
Then, earlier this year, the King and Queen Camilla were some of Pope Francis’ last visitors before his death on Easter Monday, when he gave the couple a blessing.
