Queen is the 'perfect person' to be made into a saint, says Roman Catholic peer Charles Moore
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Roman Catholic peer Charles Moore has written a leading article in Spectator Australia, suggesting that the late Queen would be the perfect person to be turned into a saint if the UK were a Catholic country. For someone to become a saint, they must fulfil several requirements. According to BBC, someone can't normally become a saint until five years after their death.
Moore, however, believes that the late 96-year-old monarch is the ‘perfect person’ to be given the honor.
As per Moore, while Queen Elizabeth was the Supreme Governor of Church of England, “She clearly did, however, possess the first of the two formal qualifications for sainthood, what the Church calls ‘heroic virtue. The second is to prove two miracles effected by intercession to the person concerned.”
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Moore wrote, “This can take time, but the world is already full of people who believe the late Queen cured them of this or that. As her cult grows, plenty of posthumous examples will come forward."
Moore wrote that the Church of England has an odd position on sainthood and only accepts pre-Reformation canonizations; it has has "never tried to add to their number (with one important and controversial exception – King Charles the Martyr)."
"If it were minded to do so, this is its best possible moment to start. Admittedly, the person in all the world least likely to have approved of such a proceeding would have been Elizabeth herself. But then, the sort of person who wants to be a saint is the sort who must not be made one," Moore mentioned.
He mentioned one example "where the Queen, after death, made a difference."
"My cousin, Tom Oliver, has long suffered from exceptional anxiety about catching illnesses. He worked hard, usually successfully, in managing this, and leads an active, fruitful life; but his worry was worsened by Covid, particularly because he is diabetic and because he was engaged in major commitments which would burden his wife if he died or was incapacitated. Until this week, Tom had had almost no direct human contact, except with immediate family, for more than 29 months. He decided, however, that he really should witness the lying-in-state. He travelled up from rural Herefordshire, and queued among the crowds of thousands, for 15 hours, never sitting down. He reached Westminster Hall well after night had fallen, and viewed the coffin. Behold, he tells me, the wonderful experience of grace cast out his fear. He is left with its rational aspects, but finds that what he calls ‘the sense of irrational jeopardy’ has gone. He quotes the line from the hymn, ‘The prisoner leaps to loose his chains’," Moore wrote.