On Saturday, the Vatican said Pope Francis had approved a decree recognising the "heroic virtues" of George Spencer. Fr. Spencer was a priest of the Passionist religious order who lived from 1799 to 1864.

Prince William and his brother Prince Harry are related to Spencer through their mother, Diana Spencer, the late Princess of Wales, who died in 1997.

Spencer was Diana's great-great-great-uncle, and also a great-uncle of Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill, according to the website of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury.

He grew up on the Spencer ancestral estate in Althorp, where Diana is buried.

Spencer left the Anglican Church and took the name "Ignatius of St Paul" after becoming a Catholic priest.

After his ordination in Rome, he returned to England and ministered to poor Irish migrants in the West Midlands.

In Britain, the Passionist religious order has been working on his sainthood cause for decades, investigating his life and writings.

The Pope's approval of the decree means Spencer now has the title "venerable".

The "four steps of the path to canonization as a saint in the Catholic Church", are in the following sequence: Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed and Saint.

The first step is based on the competence and judgment of the local diocese. The next three steps require formal recognition by Vatican authorities (i.e., the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and the pope).

Spencer's sainthood cause is still in the early stages. One miracle would have to be attributed to Spencer for him to be beatified. Then another for him to be made a saint.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that only God performs miracles but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them. A miracle is usually the medically inexplicable healing of a person.

Sources

Sydney Morning Herald

Royal Central

Besides his state duties, William will visit the tomb of his great-grandmother Princess Alice of Battenberg and Greece.

His great-grandmother has been recognised as a Righteous Among the Nations, the highest honor Israel grants to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

She is buried in a crypt below a Russian Orthodox church in east Jerusalem. Read more

The Duke of Cambridge was in the Mediterranean nation representing Queen Elizabeth II at the 50th anniversary of Malta's independence.

He went to a Thanksgiving Mass at St John's Cathedral in Valetta, Malta's capital on September 21.

The Prince sat next to the British High Commissioner and a few seats from Malta's president Marie Louise Coleiro Preca.

Principal celebrant at the Mass was Archbishop Paul Cremona of Malta.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said this was the first "public" Mass the Prince has attended.

Aides told media that Prince William might have attended Masses privately in the past.

In a private capacity, Prince William might have attended the Requiem Mass for Frances Kydd, his Catholic maternal grandmother, at the Catholic Cathedral in Oban on June, 2004.

In Malta, Prince William was travelling alone, without his wife, Catherine, and 14-month-old son George.

Catherine, who is pregnant, was supposed to go to Malta on what would have been her first solo official visit.

But she withdrew because of ongoing morning sickness.

At a function with the Maltese president, Prince William apologising to waiting crowds that he was standing in for his wife, but joked that Malta "might not survive baby George".

"There's too many precious things around here," he joked with the president.

Bishop Charles Scicluna, auxiliary bishop of Malta, said: "I told the Duke that the Duchess was very much in our prayers and she has the prayers of the Maltese people."

"It is wonderful time extending one's family. [The Prince] said 'Fingers crossed, she'll be better soon'."

When Prince William ascends the British throne he will inherit the title of supreme governor of the Church of England.

He also has strong Catholic links because he is distantly related to Fr Ignatius (George) Spencer, whose cause for sainthood is presently being considered by the Vatican.

A great-great-great uncle of the Prince's mother, Diana, Fr Spencer was an Anglican vicar before he became a Catholic at the age of 31, then a priest and ultimately a Passionist.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Daily Mail
• Times of Malta
• Image: Royalista

It is the one thing that unites every mother in its inescapable embrace: we have sex, we conceive, with little effort (for most) we grow within us a cluster of cells that morphs and roils and shapes itself into a human being; like some unstoppable experiment, this invisible life-force extrudes from our core and imprints upon our bones so that our skin itches with the stretch and our backs ache with the pressure and our pelvises are so bruised and heavy we can no longer bear it.

And then, just as we feel we might erupt, nature commands us to expel this animated being from our body. Whether this squashed little stranger we have incubated is born naturally or surgically, whether it emerges black, white, rich or poor, the singular experience of childbirth condenses the mother to her most primeval: we are animals who have grown within us new life and then released that new life into the great big world.

But this is where the similarities end. For Kate, the experience would have been riven with anxieties that no other mother has had to endure: the international press camped outside her labour suite; the comments on Twitter from millions of voyeurs demanding to know why her baby was 'late'; all her days of motherhood, from the very moment her pregnancy was prematurely revealed, lived under a penetrating, fault-finding microscope. Continue reading

Sources

• Catherine Marshall in Eureka Street
• Image: Vanity Fair

Catherine Marshall is a journalist and travel writer.

The new legislation will also remove the centuries-old gender discrimination rule that favours first-born sons over older daughters in the order of succession to the throne.

On the day on which the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced they are expecting their first child, a government spokesman confirmed that while the new law has not yet been introduced in the British Parliament, it is already de facto law, and William and Kate's first child will be able to succeed to the throne whether it is a girl or a boy.

But the new law — approved by all 16 members of the Commonwealth, including New Zealand — will not allow a Catholic to succeed to the monarchy.

Only Protestant members of the Royal Family who are descendants of Princess Sophia (1630-1714), the Electress of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I, can be king or queen.

Because the monarch is also head of the Church of England, he or she is required to take an oath to defend that church and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, praised the new legislation.

"This will eliminate a point of unjust discrimination against Catholics and will be welcomed not only by Catholics but far more widely," he said.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II has paid tribute to relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of the founding of the Venerable English College in Rome.

In a message on the December 1 Feast of the English Martyrs, she said the college — established in 1362 as a hospice for English pilgrims — is "held in high esteem . . . as a training ground for pastors, priests and future leaders of the Catholic Church of England and Wales".

Sources:

Independent Catholic News

CNN Belief

L'Osservatore Romano

Image: Mirror

His address focussed on the spiritual growth of a married couple, saying that the spiritual life grows as love centres beyond ourselves.

"The more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life."

"Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform so long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner." Bishop Chartres said.

The complete text of Bishop Chartres follows.

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and their truest selves.

Many people are fearful for the future of today's world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one - this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each other.

The spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this: the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. People can dream of such a thing but that hope should not be fulfilled without a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today - "I will" - and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely the power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform so long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

"Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon, Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon."

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive. We need mutual forgiveness in order to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads on to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can receive and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today will do everything in their power to support and uphold you in your new life. I pray that God will bless you in the way of life you have chosen. That way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

John Paul II is considered a modern Catholic hero, and the Vatican is working overtime to make the beatification go viral and embarking on a social media strategy unseen before by the Vatican. A website, a Facebook page and Twitter account all part of mix.

The Vatican even intends to broadcast the beatification in 3D, however it is having difficulty getting traction from the traditional media; TV networks are not as interested in John Paul as they once were.

According to one event planner, behind closed doors, once-optimistic Vatican officials who were planning for 1 -2 million visitors told city event planners in Rome to prepare for as few as 150,000 people and only a handful of dignitaries.

"There won't be a lot of space to cover the beatification because all the attention is going to be on England." said Sabina Castelfranco, an Italy-based reporter with CBS TV.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the church official who has advanced the case for the late pope's sainthood, bemoaned the attention the royal wedding is getting, adding, "In today's world, gossip makes more news and gathers more of an audience."

Oder said that Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow, who was John Paul II's private secretary, insisted the beatification should coincide with the May 1 Labor Day weekend, giving pilgrims from the late pontiff's native Poland enough time to travel to Rome.

Source

• Wall St Journal