The Deacon's Bench
This is exceptional — and, just maybe, unprecedented. Via The Tablet:
The Prince of Wales will travel to Rome to attend the ceremony where John Henry Newman is to be declared a saint.
Clarence House confirmed today that Prince Charles is going to be present in St Peter’s Square on 13 October 2019 when Pope Francis canonises Cardinal Newman, making him the first English non-martyr saint since the reformation.
As the Queen no longer travels abroad, the Prince of Wales is the highest-ranking royal who could have attended the occasion.
Following the canonization ceremony, the prince will attend a reception at the Collegio Urbano, part of the Pontifical Urban University, and the institution where Newman studied to become a Catholic priest. When Newman was training the college was located in what is now the offices of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, known as Propaganda Fide.
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