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Irish Times
22-04-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Londoners and tourists mourn Pope Francis as the Catholic church enjoys new lease of life
They filled the pews of Westminster Cathedral and thronged its side chapels. They stood at the back and in the aisles. Some even knelt on the marble floors. The requiem mass for Pope Francis on Monday evening drew an enormous crowd of locals and tourists alike – the grieving, the pious and the simply curious – to the central London home of the Catholic church in England and Wales. Although it sometimes runs counter to many visitors' expectations, metropolitan London is by far the most religious city in Britain due to its status as a magnet for immigrants from the developing world, where religion is stronger than in the West. Among the English Catholics praying at the cathedral on Monday evening I heard the accents of many Hispanics, Caribbeans, Africans, Southeast Asians whom I took to be Filipinos, Europeans including Italians and French, and even a few from Ireland. READ MORE The grand, red-bricked cathedral sits in the heart of London's West End, close to busy Victoria Station. The area was relatively quiet as the mass began at 5.30pm on Easter Monday. Most parking spaces in surrounding streets were taken up by broadcasting vans with satellite dishes. The broad plaza at the front of the cathedral was stalked in advance of the service by the television reporters who were eager to capture scenes of the grief of Catholics following the death earlier that day of Francis. Yet, in truth, the atmosphere at Westminster Cathedral was stoic and restrained. This was a mass for an 88-year-old man who had seemed to be near death for months. There was no sense of shock, no ostentatious displays of emotion. Very few appeared tearful. In recent months, the area around Westminster Cathedral had begun to attract many homeless asylum seekers, most of them younger men who had camped around the plaza and up the side of the cathedral building. They were moved on by local authorities over the Easter period as the church became busy with services. Now, as people came to mourn a pope who had preached compassion towards immigrants, a few of the asylum seekers appeared to have returned on Monday evening to sit on the steps outside the cathedral. However, they hadn't re-erected any of their tents by the time I left. Just inside the door to the cathedral was a memorial shrine to Francis, a large picture of him waving which was surrounded by candles and a splash of yellow and white Easter flowers. Beneath the picture were hundreds of memorial cards for churchgoers with prayers for the pope in death. These included Psalm 120 – the song of the ascents – as well as the evening prayer of the Canticle of Simeon and a bespoke 'Prayer for Francis'. The cards were professionally printed on high quality material – produced in haste, perhaps, by the Liturgy Office of the Catholic Bishops Conference on Monday afternoon. Or maybe they prepared them in advance in the expectation of what was soon to come. Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols delivers his homily at Westminster Cathedral on Monday. Photograph: PA The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, presided over the mass, which lasted for 90 minutes. Afterwards, tourists and locals queued to sign the four books of condolences for Francis that had been opened down the back of the cathedral. After the bishops left the scene, many other visitors also queued with little reverence to take selfies at the steps to the altar. London tourism trundles on as always. The Catholic church, meanwhile, has in recent years experienced something of an unexpected renaissance in Britain, fuelled by increasing mass attendance by Generation Z . A recent YouGov survey for the Bible Society found that British Catholic churchgoers now outnumber Anglicans two-to-one in the 18-34 year age group. Six years ago, there were 1.5 times more Anglicans than Catholics in this age bracket. While the number of people in Britain who identify as Christian overall is falling – it dropped below half to 46 per cent of the population at the 2021 census, as the number of non-religious grew – the Catholic church still claims 6.2 million members, even if less than a fifth are regular massgoers. The church says mass attendances have risen steadily in recent years, although these are still behind pre-pandemic levels. If the trends identified in the YouGov research persist, Catholics across all age groups will soon outnumber Anglican Protestants for the first time in 500 years since the Reformation started by Henry VIII. The monarchy in recent years appointed the UK's first Catholic prime minister – Boris Johnson married Carrie Symonds in Westminster Cathedral . High-profile Catholics such as Jacob Rees-Mogg are also prominent on the airwaves. Now an upsurge of youth has injected enthusiasm into the church. The pope may have died, but the Catholic church in Britain, it seems, remains still very much alive.
Ammon
08-02-2025
- General
- Ammon
Rare letter to Elizabeth I from possible love interest sold for £32,700
Ammon News - A rare signed letter to Queen Elizabeth I from her lifelong friend and possible love interest, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, has been sold for £32,700 – four times more than the estimated price. The document contains an enigmatic reference to an unspecified great matter of state, said to bear directly on the Queen's life and likely relating to England's policy towards Scotland in the aftermath of the Throckmorton plot of 1583. This was a conspiracy between English Catholics and continental powers to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. The earl also apologises in the letter for his elusiveness during his recent journey across the Midlands of England. His marriage in 1578 to Lettice, dowager countess of Essex, who Elizabeth loathed, is believed to have contributed to his absence and he was forced to keep his marriage half-hidden as a result. The statesman and Queen had known one another since childhood and although he had failed to win her hand in marriage, they remained close friends until his death. Experts at Lyon & Turnbull, the auctioneers who sold the letter on Wednesday, traced just two other autographed letters from the earl to Elizabeth. One is now at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. The other, at the National Archives in London, was written by him a few days before his death. Meanwhile, a letter written and signed by Henry VIII's elder daughter Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland, known as Bloody Mary, fetched £37,700 – more than double the asking price. Signed 'Mary the quene', it was written to William, Lord Paget, on the outbreak of Wyatt's Rebellion, on January 28, 1554. The Independent
The Independent
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Rare letter to Elizabeth I from possible love interest sold for £32,700
A rare signed letter to Queen Elizabeth I from her lifelong friend and possible love interest, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, has been sold for £32,700 – four times more than the estimated price. The document contains an enigmatic reference to an unspecified great matter of state, said to bear directly on the Queen's life and likely relating to England's policy towards Scotland in the aftermath of the Throckmorton plot of 1583. This was a conspiracy between English Catholics and continental powers to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary Queen of Scots. The earl also apologises in the letter for his elusiveness during his recent journey across the Midlands of England. The letter to Elizabeth from her lifelong favourite Robert Dudley provides a window on to one of history's most famous love stories Dominic Somerville-Brown, Lyon & Turnbull His marriage in 1578 to Lettice, dowager countess of Essex, who Elizabeth loathed, is believed to have contributed to his absence and he was forced to keep his marriage half-hidden as a result. The statesman and Queen had known one another since childhood and although he had failed to win her hand in marriage, they remained close friends until his death. Experts at Lyon & Turnbull, the auctioneers who sold the letter on Wednesday, traced just two other autographed letters from the earl to Elizabeth. One is now at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. The other, at the National Archives in London, was written by him a few days before his death. Meanwhile, a letter written and signed by Henry VIII's elder daughter Mary I, Queen of England and Ireland, known as Bloody Mary, fetched £37,700 – more than double the asking price. Signed 'Mary the quene', it was written to William, Lord Paget, on the outbreak of Wyatt's Rebellion, on January 28, 1554. Wyatt's Rebellion was intended by its leaders – members of parliament alarmed by Mary's imminent marriage to Prince Philip of Spain – as a series of four co-ordinated uprisings to take place in Devon, Herefordshire, Leicestershire and Kent. Mary, who was avowedly Catholic, hoped the marriage would produce a son and heir and re-establish the Catholic faith across England and Ireland. In addition, a handwritten notebook filled with remedies and recipes sold in the auction for £10,080, more than double its estimate. The snapshot into the life and times of mid-17th century England reflects a period when the country was gripped by civil war and beset by the plague. It contains 82 pages of remedies, at least 25 of them written by Dr William Fyffe, who was honorary physician to the King for the county of Lancashire. Many were for treating the plague, which was rife at the time, and for wounds caused by sword or gunshot. Dominic Somerville-Brown, specialist in rare books and manuscripts at Lyon & Turnbull, said: 'The letter to Elizabeth from her lifelong favourite Robert Dudley provides a window on to one of history's most famous love stories. 'Mary's letter is a vivid snapshot of her thinking at a pivotal moment in her rule. 'This was a stunning pair of results for two documents of first-rate importance. 'Bidders were drawn to the contrasting portraits of England's two Tudor Queens and came together to produce a succession of dramatic saleroom battles. 'There was also substantial interest and correspondingly strong prices for other historical manuscripts in the sale, including the 17th century English cookery book.'
