from Religion Media Centre
The King will attend the Catholic funeral of the Duchess of Kent, who has died aged 92, becoming the first monarch to be present at a Catholic funeral in Britain in an official capacity since the Reformation.
The funeral will be held at Westminster Cathedral on 16 September, and the King will be joined by the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and most members of the royal family.
Journalist and author Catherine Pepinster told the Sunday Times: “The funeral will be of great historical significance. 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.”
The Duchess of Kent, married to Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, converted to Catholicism in 1994, the first member of the royal family to do so since King Charles II in 1685.
She stepped back from royal duties in 1996, volunteering at The Passage for homeless people, beside Westmiinster Cathedral, and taught the piano to schoolchildren in Hull and London, incognito.
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.
Sunday Times article here.