From The Times of London:
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.
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 The 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.
“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.
