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Monday, April 27, 2009

The Prince and Princess of Wales meet the Pope

The Prince and Princess of Wales (the Duchess of Cornwall) had a meeting today with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) at the Vatican.
The Prince of Wales nor his wife are Roman Catholic, so the visit was primarily a social call.
British law and the Church of England recognize that their first marriages ended in divorce, and both British law and the Church of England recognize their civil marriage. In fact, the Church of England blessed the civil ceremony, with the Service of Blessing.
The Duchess of Cornwall's first marriage to Andrew Parker Bowles, a Roman Catholic, at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, on July 4, 1973. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Anne were present for the wedding, and Princess Margaret attended the reception.
The marriage was an ecumenical service as the former Camilla Shand was raised Anglican. Father Jerome Lambert, OSB, and the Rev. F.W.H. White were the officiants for the ceremony.
However, Camilla agreed to raise their children as Catholics. Their first child, Thomas Henry Charles, who was born in December 1974, was baptised at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, by Father Jerome Lambert, OSB. The godparents included the Prince of Wales, Lord Patrick Beresford, Captain Gerald Ward, Mr. John Bowes-Lyon, Mrs. Thomas Egerton, Mrs. Neil McConnell and Miss Carolyn Gerard-Leigh. The baptism took place on February 10, 1975.
In 1978, Camilla gave birth to a daughter, Laura Rose. She was baptised on June 4, 1978 at St. Patrick's, Corsham. Her godparents are Mr. Jeremy Tree, Major Nicholas Paravicini, Lady Charles Spencer-Churchill, the Hon. Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Joe Goodhart and Miss Miranda Morley.
It is unlikely that the Parker-Bowles children were raised strictly in the Roman Catholic faith. Tom attended Eton and Worcester College, Oxford. In 2005, he married Sara Buys in an Anglican church, St. Nicholas', Rotherfield Grey, in Oxfordshire. Their daughter, Lola Rosalind, was baptised at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace.
Laura was educated at a Roman Catholic girls' school, St. Mary's, in Dorset, but she, too, married an Anglican, Harry Lopes, the son of the Hon. George Lopes, and a grandson of the 2nd Baron Roborough.
Their wedding took place at St Cyriac's Anglican Church, in Lacock, Wiltshire. Their daughter, Eliza, was baptised according to the rites of the Anglican church.
A year after his divorce from Camilla, Andrew Parker-Bowles married Rosemary Pitman, a divorcee.

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