King Charles III and Royal Family attend Requiem Mass for Duchess of Kent

Westminster Cathedral was the setting on Tuesday for one of the most significant moments in recent Catholic history in Britain, the Requiem Mass of the Duchess of Kent, attended by the King and the Royal Family.

It was the first time that a monarch, who is also the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, has attended a Catholic Mass in this country in modern times.

The Requiem for the Duchess, who died aged 92, and who converted to Catholicism in 1994, was celebrated by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and included a message from Pope Leo XIV, read by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia and sent to the King. The Pope, offering his condolences to the King and his family, especially the Duke of Kent and the couple’s children, wrote that he wanted to associate himself “with all those offering thanksgiving to Almighty God for the Duchess’s legacy of Christian goodness, seen in her many years of dedication to official duties, patronage of charities, and devoted care for vulnerable people in society.” He went on to offer his apostolic blessing “as a pledge of consolation”.

The Mass included music from the Requiem Mass by Duruflé, while the first and second readings were read by the Duchess’s children, the Earl of St Andrews and Lady Helen Taylor. Her other son, Lord Nicholas Windsor, who is also a convert, attended too.

The bidding prayers, which were read by three of the Duchess’s grandchildren, included prayers for Pope Leo, the King, for the Duchess of Kent and other deceased relatives and friends “that they may rest in the eternal peace of God’s presence”.

This would have been one of the elements of the Mass which would be unlike the services that the King would usually attend, as prayers for the dead are not typical of the Church of England. If he joined in the prayers, or knelt during the consecration, or received a blessing from Cardinal Nicholas during the distribution of Holy Communion, it will have been little noted. The public were not allowed into the funeral and only one reporter from a news agency was allowed to attend.

Nevertheless, the King’s attendance at the funeral of the Duchess who was the first member of the Royal Family to become a Catholic since 1685, was a significant ecumenical moment.

The coffin of the Duchess, who was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal Basil Hume in 1994, was brought to the cathedral on Monday night, draped in a royal standard and with a wreath of white roses, symbolising her home county of Yorkshire. Her immediate family attended the rite of reception and evening vespers.

Dozens of members of the extended Royal Family attended the Requiem, which was the first royal funeral to be held at Westminster Cathedral since it opened in 1903. As well as the King, the mourners included the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the Duke of York, who is rarely seen in public, apart from family occasions, after withdrawing from royal duties over his relationship with the American financier and paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. The Queen, who was unwell, did not attend.

Hundreds of members of the public watched the congregation arriving at the church. Among them was Summer Yina, 9, who is a pupil at the neighbouring St Vincent de Paul Primary School and had a music scholarship from the Duchess of Kent’s charity Future Talent which helped fund her attendance at the Guildhall School of music for piano lessons. Her mother, Yina He said: “The Duchess helped my daughter with her scholarship for two years. We felt we had to come to pay our respects.”