“A profound sense of duty, unfailing good humour, a life that permitted millions of others to live” . So the archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, primate of the Church of England, and Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, archbishop of Westminister, remembered the Queen Mother during her funeral service in Westminster Abbey in London. The Anglican archbishop gave the homily while the Catholic cardinal read the second lesson. “Strength, dignity and good humour”: these are the characteristics of the personality of the Queen Mother, according to archbishop Carey. The five million English Catholics shared the grief of the royal family in this period of national mourning, praying for the Queen Mother in every church throughout the land, during each celebration. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor celebrated a mass for the Queen Mother in Westminster Cathedral on Sunday, 7 April. “We are a single family, the human family said the cardinal in his homily all of us created in the image and likeness of God. We are called to walk side by side through all the trials and tribulations of life. Often we fail to seize those simple occasions for communicating a little of the tenderness and compassion with which our Father regards us. The Queen Mother knew all this. She understood the importance of gestures, of kindness, of solidarity”.
