ITALY’S press yesterday hailed the Queen as an abiding symbol
of stability and continuity for a country which had neither.
Corriere della Sera spoke of the “discreet fascination of the
monarchy” while La Stampa said that Italian fascination with the
Queen’s visit — which has been given blanket media coverage —
reflected “the fact that we ourselves lack any such symbol of
national unity”. Italy was formed from a patchwork of duchies and
principalities in 1870, and became a republic in 1946.
“The magic of monarchy seduces Italy”, ran the headline in La
Repubblica. The paper added, however, that Italian interest in the
Queen and her entourage was not to be confused with nostalgia
for the former Italian royal family, who live in exile in Switzerland.
Il Giornale said that Italians had paid minute attention to every
detail of dress and diet during the Queen’s trip. It said that
although the supposed ban on the wearing of red and black in the
Queen’s presence was probably apocryphal, most leading Italian
ladies such as Donatalla Dini, the glamorous wife of Lamberto
Dini, the Foreign Minister, had played safe by wearing elegant
outfits in apricot or salmon. Il Messaggero said the Queen must
have been struck by the number of women in senior positions in
Italy compared to her last visit 20 years ago. The Italian centre-left
government has several women ministers, including Giovanna
Melanadri, the young New York-born Minister of culture.
~*~
A tender royal touch for frail Pope(UK Times)
FROM ALAN HAMILTON IN ROME
AT 108.7 acres the Vatican is the world’s smallest state, dwarfed
even by Monaco and positively overwhelmed by Liechtenstein at
300 times its size. If it bears any similarity to the sovereign territory
of the United Kingdom, it is that neither head of state enjoys the
option of retirement.
The Pope, at 80, bears his years heavily, bowed with age and his
left hand subject to the tremors of Parkinson’s disease. The
Queen, at 74, remains sprightly, bright-eyed, even girlish in her
enthusiasm. Her voice and body language at her meeting with John
Paul II yesterday spoke a tender concern, as a doting daughter
might treat an elderly father.
She came, not as Supreme Governor of a breakaway faith
recently branded as “defective” by a prominent cardinal, but as
one head of state paying a courtesy call on another during this
millennium year of the Christian faith. She is the thirty-sixth so far
this year to pay her respects to the Vatican but she was still
accorded the Holy See’s full panoply of ceremony, involving
Swiss Guards, coveys of cardinals and a tour of some of the finest
domestic interiors in the world.
The Queen swept up in her motorcade to the wide, sunny
courtyard of the Apostolic Palace to be greeted by a guard of
honour of medieval helmets and tall pikestaffs. Her outfit was a
safe, black calf-length two-piece, offset by three strings of pearls
and some dazzling diamond jewellery on breast and wrists. Her
entourage of 15, led by Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary,
matched her in dark suits or black dresses. She might have been
going to a funeral except that her step was jaunty, her smile wide
and her veil did not cover her face.
She was greeted at the palace door by Bishop James Harvey, a
purple-clad American who is Prefect of the Papal Household in
charge of receiving distinguished guests. They ascended to the
second floor in a wooden lift and walked seemingly endless
corridors through frescoed chambers of ever-increasing ornament
until they reached the small, plain Sala del Tronetto, the Room of
the Little Throne, which serves as the antechamber to the papal
library.
When she was still some yards away the plain, solid door to the
library was suddenly flung open from the inside by Bishop Dziwisz,
the Pope’s Polish secretary. John Paul, in his white cassock, stood
half-concealed inside, leaning on a stick. As the Queen
approached the secretary took his stick, the Pope made a
strenuous effort to unbend himself and stand erect, and stretched
out his hand to greet the Queen on the threshold of his private
quarters. “It’s a great pleasure to see you again,” she said brightly,
taking his hand. They recalled that they had last met at
Buckingham Palace in 1982.
Accompanied only by the Duke of Edinburgh, the Queen was
ushered inside to sit opposite the Pope at his large, bare desk in a
corner of a room largely devoid of ornament, its walls lined with
paintings and bookcases full of old Bibles.
As the Queen was remarking how important the papal jubilee year
was and asking if he had had many pilgrims, the door was closed,
and for the next 24 minutes their meeting became private.
The library door reopened to reveal the Pope, slightly slumped
and with his head almost resting on his right shoulder, sitting
between the Queen and the Duke on ornate chairs at the other end
of the room. All three rose as the Queen’s entourage filed in to be
presented. In the manner of an investiture the Pope, helped by an
aide, handed each a gift in a small, white leather jewellery box: a
rosary for the women and a medal commemorating his papacy for
the men.
Visitor and host walked down the room, the Queen hovering by
the Pope’s side as though ready to catch him should he stumble.
They reached a large table on which the gifts were displayed, the
Queen’s set of volumes, handmade by the bindery at Windsor
Castle, containing reproductions of 50 Canalettos in the royal
collection. The Pope’s gift to her was a red leather-bound
reproduction of a 13th-century illuminated manuscript of the New
Testament.
With obvious delight, the Queen flicked through it. “What
wonderful illustrations. How very kind. It will go back into our
own library at Windsor.” The Pope stretched out his hand and
gave the Queen another of his white boxes containing a rosary.
She appeared touched. He grasped her right hand with both of his
and shook it warmly. When he released his grip the Queen’s own
hand was shaking, whether from emotion, nervousness or the
strength of his grasp.
The audience was over. The Queen was whisked down yet more
frescoed halls to meet the Vatican Secretary of State and to crane
her neck at the glories of the restored Sistine Chapel, hastily
cleared of tourists minutes before her arrival.
Queen and Pope are unlikely to meet again. But they appeared to
have left relations between their churches in a better state than they
have sometimes been. And down the labyrinthine corridors of the
Vatican later yesterday breezed the whisper that the Queen’s
personal concern for a frail and elderly man had been noted.
~*~
Two monarchs and a puritan(Electronic Telegraph)
Problem with Prince's regimental tie
knot is unravelled(Electronic Telegraph)
A PORTRAIT of the Prince of Wales was unveiled for the second time
yesterday after the artist had to change the way his regimental tie was painted.
Some zealots could not contain their resentment of the
Vatican. Prominent among them was Andreas Whittam
Smith: son of an evangelical clergyman, founder of the
Independent, and now president of the British Board of
Film Classification. From his old pulpit, Mr Whittam
Smith denounced the Pope's "breathtaking arrogance".
Under the headline "Behind his smile, the Pope
remains scornful of the English", his article suggested
that John Paul II regards the present Queen in much
the same light as Pius V did Elizabeth I when he
excommunicated her in 1570.
The chief film censor, despite his job, is tolerant of
almost any depravity on screen. Yet on the subject of
the Pope, a man of conspicuous virtue, Mr Whittam
Smith is censorious to the point of bigotry. He is the
very model of the modern puritan.
~*~
By Tara Womersley
The painting shows Prince Charles wearing the Gordon Highlanders' tie but
the original version showed it knotted with a yellow stripe, which goes against
the regiment's tradition. He was not wearing the tie while sitting for the portrait
and it was just before its first unveiling at the regiment's museum in Aberdeen
in the presence of the Prince that the artist was told of his mistake.
Richard Stone, who has painted every member of the entire Royal family,
said: "You could call it a knotty problem. The sittings lasted about an hour and
because Prince Charles had to rush off for other engagements there was not
the time for him to change clothes.
"A member of his staff gave me the tie and I thought it looked rather good
with the yellow in the middle. The mistake was embarrassing at first. It only
took a minute or so to fill in the yellow with black but I had to wait until I
could return to Aberdeen to unveil it again."
Mr Stone, of Colchester, has provided the painting free to the independent
museum and 350 limited edition prints are also being sold to raise money for
the museum's upkeep.
It is unclear how the tradition of knotting the Gordon Highlanders' tie started.
The regiment was formed in 1794 to deal with the French revolutionary wars
and Prince Charles was its last Colonel-in-Chief before it was joined with the
Queen's Own Highlanders six years ago.
The Prince of Wales visited the Strathisla distillery in Keith, yesterday - the
home of Chivas Regal - and examined their whisky but resisted the temptation
to taste it.
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