Historians Organize Petition to Inter Richard III with Catholic Rites

Edit:  Why not the Sarum Rite?  We were one of the first, if not the first, to suggest that a Catholic Bishop say the Sarum Rite to reinter Richard III. Archbishop Conti is familiar with the Sarum Rite.

Petition is organised by historians whose efforts led to the discovery of the king's remains

Three thousand people have signed a petition calling for Richard III to be given a Catholic burial.

The petition, addressed to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, is being organised by the historians whose efforts led to the king’s remains being found under a car park in Leicester.

Under present plans Richard III, who died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before the Reformation, will be buried at the Anglican cathedral in Leicester on March 26.

But Philippa Langley, leader of the Looking for Richard project, said the burial should take into account Richard III’s Catholic faith.

She said: “It seems this former king and head of state is to be treated as a scientific specimen right up to and including the point at which he is laid in his coffin.”

Dr John Ashdown-Hill, a historian who worked to identify the bones, has also called for a Catholic burial, saying: “There is a lot of evidence that Richard III had a very serious personal faith. If Richard III had not have died, maybe the Anglican church would never have existed.”

However, a joint statement by Leicester Cathedral and the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham said these concerns were “fundamentally misplaced”.

The statement said: “There is no requirement in the Catholic tradition for prayers to be said at the coffining of human remains, including those of a monarch. The arrangements agreed between the university and the cathedral have the full support of the Catholic Church.”

Ecumenical services will surround the event, with Cardinal Nichols preaching a service of compline on the day the king’s remains are received into the cathedral.

The cardinal will also celebrate a Requiem Mass the next day at a nearby Catholic parish.

Link to Catholic Herald...

Link to Petition....

Link to Ashdown-Hill's page on Richard III....

Richard III to Be Buried at Leicester in the Rite of Cramner

Edit: it looks like Richard III is going to be reinterred at Leicester Cathedral, but there won't be a Catholic Mass, certainly not a rite he would recognize with ease. We suggested that he be buried in the Sarum Rite. Despite the gravity of the matter, there is almost a carnival atmosphere around the proper treatment of the remains.  Perhaps the local clergy are too embarrassed to say something?

London (CNN) -- It's been a long journey for Richard III, the 15th century king whose skeleton was found under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester. But on Friday, his final destination became clear.
The medieval monarch will be reburied in Leicester Cathedral, just a stone's throw away from where his remains were uncovered.
The discovery of his remains, complete with curved spine and staved-in skull, in the summer of 2012 sparked global headlines and a new battle -- over which city would host his remains in perpetuity.

Link ...

Richard III Was Catholic and He Should be Buried as One

Edit: we said it first in September as soon as it was possible it could have been him. Indeed, a proper Mass for him still isn’t impossible.

By John-Paul Ford Rojas7:26PM GMT 17 Mar 2013 

[Telegraph] Dr John Ashdown-Hill argued that the monarch, killed in 1485 before the Reformation, was “a very religious man”. He suggested that the split from Rome that took place a few decades later might never have happened were it not for Richard’s defeat at the hands of the Tudors.

The king’s skeletal remains were discovered under a car park in Leicester earlier this year and he is now expected to be buried at the city’s Anglican cathedral – since it is the nearest consecrated ground.

But the decision has proved controversial with many arguing he should be re-interred at York Minster because of his strong ties to the region. There has also been the question of his religious affiliation.

Dr Ashdown-Hill told the BBC: “There is a lot of evidence that Richard III had a very serious personal faith. If Richard III had not have died, maybe the Anglican church would never have existed.”

Maybe this Mass would look like this:

A Proper Mass for Richard III Isn't Impossible

Update:  there's even a battle going on between York and Leicester.  Indeed, King Richard was the last Northern King.  There's also a petition you can sign if you're a citizen of the United Kingdom.

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.

The Injustices of the Protestant Revolt Continue: Richard III to be Buried in Protestant Church

Richard III
From Wiki, public domain.

Edit: The current story of the finding of Richard III at BBC, the Telegraph,  is a story of forensics.  Many are no doubt interested, for the fascination which is history, to find out if the body which has been exhumed is indeed that of the last English King slain in battle, but it's also a forensic question of religion.   The church itself, which is Greyfriars church in Leicester, was destroyed during the Protestant Revolt. Richard III was himself not a protestant, and had he lived to see the Protestant Revolt which disturbed his final resting place and lost his bones to posterity in the first place, it is very possible he would have reacted quite differently than his successors of the family which usurped him by keeping England in the proper religion.

As one reader informs us, since Leicester was a Dominican establishment, it's unclear why local Dominicans haven't raised any objections, but things being as they are in the Catholic Church these days, it's perhaps not surprising.  They do say the Immemorial Mass of All Ages, which is a Mass Richard III would have recognized.

While waiting for a confirmation as to whether or not the recently discovered remains are indeed those of the English Monarch, Richard III, there is at least the confirmation that he will be interred in Leicester Cathedral, an Anglican Settlement.

Earlier, in September, before anyone else, we suggested that the King should not be interred in a Protestant church with their rites, which Richard III would likely not have approved or wanted to participate in as a Roman Catholic.  In any case, given the growing influence of the Catholic Church in the UK and the increasing insignificance of the Anglican Church, it would be a wonderful ecumenical gesture on the part of the Church of England to allow us to bury one of our own, however villainous he might have been.

Moreover, there is still a Bishop who is familiar with the Sarum Rite, who is capable of performing the Mass.  His Lordship, Bishop Conti, is certainly available for such a service and has said the ancient and disused Rite before.  There were suggestions about a York Rite, but there is no one alive who is familiar with it.

Indeed, since aboriginals receive preferential consideration when it comes to these questions, shouldn't Catholics, who've been so brutally persecuted in English history, also receive some due consideration? It's unlikely that this will sway anyone's mind, but at least it serves to point out the hypocrisy.

It's also the case, if any are concerned of such things in the Catholic hierarchy in England, that since Richard III is a Catholic, his body being christened, his forehead being sealed with confession, his lips uttering our holy prayers, and his knees bent in veneration to our Saints.  It was perhaps as he died, that he may have uttered an act of contrition for his sins.

It would also be an interesting point, since Richard III was a Catholic, that the Sarum Rite, which was widely the use of his time and how he was buried, be revived to accommodate him.   It is of course, in such a Mass, that prayers, getting back to the idea of forensics, could be recited for this Catholic King, which might serve for his salvation, which is, after all, what the Church is for.

Reinterring the King according to the Rite he knew, in his own religion is not only just in purely human terms, but it is also the right thing to do in God's own time.