The Platinum Jubilee has led to many celebratory events and a four-day holiday weekend beginning Thursday.
“Parishes may also wish to sing the chant ‘Domine, salvum fac’ and/or the National Anthem,” the bishops’ instruction says. The Latin chant in English reads “O Lord, save Elizabeth, our Queen and hear us on the day we call upon you.” The National Anthem of the United Kingdom is “God Save the Queen.”
The “Prayer for the Queen,” to be said following the Prayer After Communion, reads: “Almighty God, we pray, that your servant Elizabeth, our Queen, who, by your providence has received the governance of this realm, may continue to grow in every virtue, that, imbued with your heavenly grace, she may be preserved from all that is harmful and evil and, being blessed with your favor may, with the royal family, come at last into your presence, through Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life and who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
The queen is head of the Church of England, a Protestant body which broke from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Any potential successors to the British throne who become Catholic give up their rights to become monarch. Until a 2013 Act of Parliament took effect in 2015, any potential successors who married a Catholic were barred from acceding to the throne.
About eight percent of the population in England and Wales is Catholic.
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