The Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth, died on 9 April, aged 99. The Vatican Secretary for Relations with States also participated in the memorial service held in Rome.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher opened his homily during the service with "an image far from this place, in the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from the prelude of his epic-poem Evangeline":

Archbishop Gallagher notes that the forest described in the poem would be full of immense trees of different varieties. In walking through the forest one would "note their presence with awe", he said. "It seems they have always been there".

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