We have two sides to the loss of the Queen, a Queen who reigned for 70 years. There is the loss of the long reigning monarch, Elizabeth II, and there is the loss of the person who wore the crown, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. There may be extreme reactions to her death be they a crevasse of hyper-sentimentality or a crevasse of hyper-criticism that could smother this great loss for this nation and for the Commonwealth, but as Catholics we must keep our heads. We must not fall into either crevasse as both would give us an unreal picture of the significance of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

So let us steer a middle way and consider the life of Queen Elizabeth II as a Queen from the vantage point of 1953 that is her Coronation Oath; and consider the person who wore the crown, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, from the vantage point of 21 April 1947 which was the occasion of her twenty-first birthday as Princess Elizabeth, when she said: ‘I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service.’

As a person who wore the crown for 70 years we note that she came from a generation who had the virtues of self restraint, a sense of duty, a dedication to public service and a sense of what was proper, what was modest and was fitting. This was her public face as to her private face that is known by her inner circle of family and friends and is not open to public comment.

Yet, as a person baptised into the Life, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ she too must stand before the judgment seat of God to give an account of both her public office and her personal life. As such she requires of us, who are Catholics and have the fulness of the faith, that we pray for her soul, that we offer the sacrifice of the Mass for her soul and that we do penance for her soul too. Contrary to those who are hyper sentimental she does not go straight into heaven because she was a Queen and contrary to the hyper critical nor must she be deprived of our good will and our prayers because she was not a Catholic.

We will over the next 10 days or so walk with the people of this nation in mourning for the Queen who has been a pervasive presence in the lives of her people and whose absence will be deeply felt. Felt as a shifting of the ground beneath them, as a cold wind piercing home and institution, as the loss of something reliable, constant and benign. She as Queen has seen come and go 15 prime ministers and finally received the 16th and last prime minister of her reign before departing this world. Queen Elizabeth II came from a generation very different to this present one and it was a generation that held to the values of a Christian culture that bore very little relation to today’s present culture which sports what Boris John calls ‘British values’; yes, a ‘woke culture of British values’ unrecognisable to the Queen and her generation.

But still our reflections on Queen Elizabeth’s reign must have some objective basis for evaluation and critique so as to avoid any kind of anachronism or archaism where we either assess her reign according to contemporary values or according to older values. Both would prove distorting. Whereas, if we take this time to quietly ponder for ourselves her reign in terms of whether or not it fulfilled what Queen Elizabeth herself vowed to uphold then this is something that may take us out of the subjective, the prejudicial and the overly sentimental. For which purpose I have laid out a copy of her Coronation Oath for all our considerations.

So let us take some time out from the pomp and the pageantry, the rituals and the olden traditions that will now surround the preparations for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II by considering the 70 years of her reign and consider her reign in the light of that Oath and also how far we and the 16 Prime Ministers, Governments and Parliamentary MPs helped or hindered her in keeping her Coronation Oath!

THE CORONATION OATH TAKEN BY QUEEN ELIZABETH II:

In the Coronation ceremony of 2 June 1953, one of the highlights was when The Queen made her Coronation Oath (taken from the Order of Service for the Coronation), the Archbishop standing before her administered the Coronation Oath, first asking the Queen:

Archbishop: Madam, is your Majesty willing to take the Oath?

And the Queen answering: I am willing.

The Archbishop shall minister these questions; and The Queen, having a book in her hands, shall answer each question severally as follows:

Archbishop: Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon, and of your Possessions and the other Territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs?

Queen: I solemnly promise so to do.

Archbishop: Will you to your power cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgements?

Queen: I will.

Archbishop: Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel?

Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?

Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England?

And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?

Queen: All this I promise to do.

Then the Queen arising out of her Chair, supported as before, the Sword of State being carried before her, shall go to the Altar, and make her solemn Oath in the sight of all the people to observe the premisses: laying her right hand upon the Holy Gospel in the great Bible (which was before carried in the procession and is now brought from the Altar by the Arch-bishop, and tendered to her as she kneels upon the steps), and saying these words:

The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.

Queen Elizabeth II died on the 8th September 2022 which was the Feast day of the Birthday of the Queen of Queens, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

As Our heavenly Queen, our Spiritual Mother and our Protectoress, for whom England was called Our Lady’s dowry, we ask the Queen of Queens to intercede for the soul of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

I now end this short reflection with a prayer for the repose of the soul of a much loved Queen, Elizabeth II.

Eternal rest, grant to her O Lord,

And let Perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace.

Amen.

May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed,

Through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen