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Well ahead of his May 6 coronation, King Charles met a Catholic delegation at Buckingham Palace last week.
As king, Charles is the supreme governor of the Church of England.
Speaking for the 12-member delegation, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster pledged his church’s allegiance to the new king.
“For so many years, we have observed your desire and unstinting efforts to explore and enhance the well-being of the entire human family, through your commitment to religious faith, protection of the environment and relief of poverty,” Nichols said.
“The Catholic community is profoundly supportive of these fundamental concerns, as we strive to offer our society, your kingdom, an education for young people that is rooted in faith and its consequent commitment to human dignity.”
The March 9 ceremony also heard similar pledges made by representatives of numerous other Christian denominations and religious and academic communities.
Nichols said British Catholics remembered the “remarkable and unique role” played by the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and would give “support and prayers” to Charles III, while also appreciating his “steadfast opposition to religious persecution”.
Charles paid tribute to the contribution of churches and other associations to the UK’s “national fabric” and to advancing mutual knowledge and understanding.
“You underpin the very foundations on which our country is built and help construct a framework of excellence and achievement within which our civil society functions and our national narrative can be formed,” Charles said.
Britain’s Catholic community held “together in a common faith” people from “different nationalities, languages, cultures and customs,” Nichols said.
The Catholic faith required “a particular concern” toward those “fleeing violence and poverty” and “trapped in human trafficking and modern slavery”.
Catholics share the monarch’s view that society could thrive only “through a clear collective commitment to vital principles of freedom of conscience, generosity of spirit and care for others”.
Catholic coronation heritage
As yet details of a Catholic role in the upcoming coronation haven’t been announced.
The Protestant service will be held, as it has for nine centuries, in Westminster Abbey.
It will be organised, according to tradition, by the Duke of Norfolk, Edward Fitzalan-Howard — Britain’s highest-ranking noble and most senior lay Catholic.
The ceremony will feature a Gospel choir and Greek Orthodox music in memory of the King’s Greek-born father, Prince Philip, and the Latin Veni Creator Spiritus used at episcopal consecrations.
Buckingham Palace sources says the religious ceremony will be representative of different faiths and community groups, in line with the king’s wishes. They also say the traditional coronation oath to preserve the “rights and privileges” of Protestant bishops and clergy was likely to be modified.
Joseph Shaw, chairman of England’s Latin Mass Society, says the royal coronation ceremony, dating back a thousand years, remains “powerfully and profoundly Catholic” in design.
“The idea of monarchy remains consonant with Catholic conceptions for the ordering of society under God. Whatever the personal limitations of particular monarchs, monarchy is something Catholics should cherish for what it represents.”
As Prince of Wales, Charles pledged to uphold his church’s role in “protecting the free practice of all religious faiths”.
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