Edit: a few days ago it was finally confirmed that Richard III, one of England's last Catholic monarchs, did indeed find his last resting place beneath a car park in Leicester, England, after the fateful Battle of Bosworth Field. It doesn't matter that he is an unlikely cause for canonization and that he did many evil things during his life. St. Thomas More believed Richard was one of the most evil men of the age and got what he had coming to him, but could St. Thomas More have foreseen the remains of this devout Catholic King resting in unconsecrated ground?
Now that we know these battle scarred remains are those of Richard III, who was a devout, if poor, Catholic, it would be an edifying thing for England's Catholics, to see his bones put to rest according to our own Rites. Perhaps a few may recall that it was we who first made the suggestion in September?
After all, if Dakota Indians can lay claim to the remains of people almost completely unrelated to them in Minnesota, why can't Catholics do the same for their own sacred grounds and dead? Richard III was one of us. He said the same prayers, he went to the same Holy Mass and believed the same Catholic Faith which was handed down to us by our fathers and mothers. Moreover, is there any point in going into the fact that with its extreme trendiness, enthusiasm for the trends of the day, that the Church of England has long since ceased resembling anything Richard III would have recognized as a fitting Church, much less a Christian religion?
It's not just that it might be done, in a Rite fitting a Catholic King, but that it can be done. A commenter on Australia Incognita Blog knows just the Bishop for the job, in fact, the local Ordinary of Leicester himself.
