Religion: Common Courtesy

Last week, for the fifth time in the 400 years since Henry VIII broke with Rome, a top member of the British royal family paid an official courtesy call on the Pope.* Princess Elizabeth, with her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, had a 25-minute audience with Pius XII at the start of a two-week vacation in Italy.

Back home in Britain there were some Protestant grumbles, but the Church of England took an unruffled official view. Said a spokesman for the church of which Elizabeth will some day be titular head: “The princess is in Rome as a private individual and can visit whom she likes. For her to see the Pope is a matter of common courtesy. After all, he’s a Christian leader—why shouldn’t she call on him? There may be a difference of opinion between the Church of England and the Church of Rome, but there’s certainly no enmity whatever.”

* The others: King Edward VII in 1903, the Duke of Windsor (as Prince of Wales) in 1918, King George V and Queen Mary in 1923, Princess Margaret in 1949.