Requiem for a Queen?

My favourite image of Queen Elizabeth, whose reign was long and exemplary, was that moment during Pope Benedict’s visit when the two of them met in Edinburgh; these virtuous souls complimented each other.

Now virtue is not a naturally occurring phenomenon- it has to be cultivated -and it struck me therefore that we were looking at the last remnants of a better generation than our own. Here were two representatives of an era which produced better people than we seem to do today. 

On that visit Pope Benedict said “if we are to be effective Christian leaders, we must live lives of the utmost integrity, humility and holiness”  A fitting description of both. And I reflected that it was almost inevitable that each would be succeeded by a lesser person simply because both had seldom seen integrity and virtue. It is my belief that the world is poorer without the Queen and an active Pope Benedict. 

Of course they were not only representatives of their generation. They were also heads of State and uniquely of Ecclesial bodies. The Protestant Queen- head of the Anglican communion. The Catholic Pope head of the true church. How then should we Catholics reconcile our patriotic duty to the crown with the sorry fact of reformation divide? Is it right and proper to offer a Requiem Mass for a Protestant leader as we do this morning? What are we saying here? This is an important question. 

The first thing to point out is that the Catholic church has always maintained it is noble to pray for non-Catholics. A fact as true in death as in life. Canon Law permits requiems, and indeed funerals, for non Catholics for this reason. Ultimately we are not God. We have no idea how he will judge the ages or any individual. And it is ludicrous to imagine membership alone will prove the dividing factor. Brother Roger of Taize died outside the church but few would deny his piety and love for Jesus. On the other hand we can all think of Catholics with poor spiritual formation and life. Simply playing “in people” and “out people” will not suffice; as the parable of the Good Samaritan and the company Jesus kept, made clear. 

That said we can say with certainty that the guarantee of salvation exists in Catholicism alone. This is the faith founded on the papal succession. Make no mistake the sad divisions of Christians cause God sorrow, they go against not only his will but his word. He prayed for us to be One. Our division as Christians confuses the world, weakens the message, damages credibility and hampers evangelisation. Schism is therefore toxic and the healing that ecumenism seeks must end with full reconciliation with the Holy See or it is not, in truth, ecumenical. Jesus’ prayer was not for a federation of different Churches each claiming different versions of a perceived truth. He prayed that we might be one and he founded the papacy to ensure this. Unity requires full communion with the Pope and also full doctrinal fidelity. Bishops on both sides of the Tiber could do with a refresher course at times. 

Back to the Queen and Pope Benedict. And let us ponder why he came to Britain at all. It was not, as many assume, simply to beatify Newman; though that was part of it. Pope Benedict’s vision went further. He beatified Newman for a reason, as part of his desire to establish the Ordinariate- his plan for a healing of reformation divide. Hence, at the start of his visit and in his final address, he urged the Catholic bishops of England and Wales to be generous in establishing the Ordinariate. Have they been? I will let you be the judge of that….

Pope Benedict knew that if England is to return to her historic Catholic faith she must better evangelise the English world. The Catholic church revived here in the 19^th Century as anti-Catholicism softened but most growth was due to immigration. It is no accident Liverpool’s Cathedral is known as Paddy’s wigwam not George’s. Nor is it coincidence that an Anglican mock title for Catholicism in this country was ‘the Italian mission to the Irish’. Such claims ignore the vital truth and work of recusant history but nevertheless we cannot deny that English public life has often remained staunchly and stubbornly not Catholic. And until this changes the monarch will always remain Protestant and the nation’s heart will not beat with Catholic vigour. 

To bolster the mission of the Catholic church already under way on these shores Pope Benedict set Newman, a Protestant who became Catholic, on the path to Sainthood and then established an Ordinariate with Anglican Patrimony- remember ‘Anglican’ means English. Then he handed this English Ordinariate into the maternal care of Our Lady of Walsingham; the centre of Catholic England since the Blessed Virgin appeared to Lady Richeldis on these shores. The mission of the Ordinariate is to help remind England of her own Catholic history; that Oxford and Cambridge were in fact Catholic institutions, so too our historic hospitals and schools. So too the medieval churches that beautifully fill our landscape. The Ordinariate was given then to retain our wonderful cosmopolitan Church – we must never lose that vital contribution -whilst also enabling her to better speak with local dialect. 

So it is not just fitting for Ordinariate parishes like ours to offer Requiem’s for the monarch but important; praying as we do for the Conversation of England and an end to reformation divide. 

Let us end with the final words of Pope Benedict as he left these shores 

“I urge you to be generous in implementing Anglicanorum Coetibus (The Ordinariate) This should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to all. Let us continue to pray and work unceasingly in order to hasten the joyful day when that goal can be accomplished.”

Brethren let us pray that Elizabeth our Queen may rest in peace and that England may one day be Catholic again.