Pope sends prayers to Queen Elizabeth II on her Platinum Jubilee

Pope Francis has sent a telegram to Queen Elizabeth II offering his prayers and good wishes as she marks 70 years on the throne.

In the telegram, the Pope said, “On this joyful occasion of your Majesty’s birthday, and as you celebrate this Platinum Jubilee year, I send cordial greetings and good wishes, together with the renewed assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will bestow upon you, the members of the Royal Family and all the people of the nation blessings of unity, prosperity and peace.”

The Pope also said he joined with those expressing appreciation for her persevering and steadfast service to the good of the nation, “the advancement of its people, and the preservation of its illustrious spiritual, cultural and political heritage.”

Thursday marks the start of a weekend of celebrations across the United Kingdom. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales released prayers for the occasion.

“We pray for Elizabeth, our Queen; may she continue to know the steadfast love of God and serve her people faithfully,” reads the model intention published by the bishops’ conference.

The bishops’ conference said that at all Sunday Masses this coming weekend, June 4-5, each parish in England and Wales should pray “for Her Majesty the Queen to mark her Platinum Jubilee.” Each parish should include an intention in the Prayer of the Faithful and at the end of the Mass recite the “Prayer for the Queen.”

Queen Elizabeth, who turned 96 on April 21, is England’s longest serving monarch, having ascended to the throne in 1952 at age 25 after the death of her father, King George VI. Her coronation took place the following year, on June 2, 1953.  She is the first British monarch to hold the throne for 70 years. Queen Victoria, Elizabeth II’s great-great-grandmother, ruled for 63 years and seven months.

Elizabeth has met four popes as queen, and one (Pius XII) as princess in 1951. She and her late husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, met with Pope Francis in the Vatican in 2014.

The meeting marked the 100th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See. After their meeting, Pope Francis gave the couple a facsimile of Pope Innocent XI's order extending the cult of St. Edward the Confessor, and the queen in turn presented the pope with a large basket of food from the estates surrounding her homes. The items included an assortment of honey, a dozen eggs, a haunch of venison, shortbread, juice, preserves, and Balmoral whiskey.

The Platinum Jubilee has led to many celebratory events and a four-day holiday weekend beginning Thursday.

“Parishes may also wish to sing the chant ‘Domine, salvum fac’ and/or the National Anthem,” the bishops’ instruction says. The Latin chant in English reads “O Lord, save Elizabeth, our Queen and hear us on the day we call upon you.” The National Anthem of the United Kingdom is “God Save the Queen.”

The “Prayer for the Queen,” to be said following the Prayer After Communion, reads: “Almighty God, we pray, that your servant Elizabeth, our Queen, who, by your providence has received the governance of this realm, may continue to grow in every virtue, that, imbued with your heavenly grace, she may be preserved from all that is harmful and evil and, being blessed with your favor may, with the royal family, come at last into your presence, through Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

The Queen is head of the Church of England, which broke from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Any potential successors to the British throne who become Catholic give up their rights to become monarch. Until a 2013 Act of Parliament took effect in 2015, any potential successors who married a Catholic were barred from acceding to the throne.

About eight per cent of the population in England and Wales is Catholic.

With files from Vatican News

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