I liked William's amusement as he whispered to his father-in-law
"We wanted a small family affair" in the middle of Westminster cathedral.
The abbey is not a cathedral. Cathedral is a technical term, the "seat" of the bishop of a diocese. The cathedral, or seat for the bishop of London, is St. Paul's.
Believe it or not, there is most
definitely a Westminster Cathedral--it just isn't the Abbey. In quite a few large British cities, there are
TWO cathedrals--one C. of E., and, as you can probably guess, R.C.; and this one is the biggest (and in this case, the ugliest):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_CathedralWestminster CathedralFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWestminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster. It is dedicated to the "Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ" (the Eucharist).
The cathedral is located in Victoria, SW1, in the City of Westminster. It is the largest Catholic church in England and Wales,
and should not be confused with Westminster Abbey of the Church of England. Westminster Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster, currently
Archbishop Vincent Nichols. As a matter of custom, each newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster has eventually been created a cardinal in consistory.
(....)
The cathedral opened in 1903, a little after [architect
John Francis]
Bentley's death. For reasons of economy the decoration of the interior had hardly been started and still much remained to be completed. It is often presumed that Westminster Cathedral was the first Catholic place of worship to be built in England after the English Reformation; however that honour belongs to
St Patrick's in Soho Square built in 1792. Britain's first Catholic churches built after the Reformation are both in
Banffshire, Scotland. They are
St. Ninian's, Tynet, built in 1755 and its near neighbour,
St. Gregory's, Preshome, built in 1788. Both churches are still in use.
Under the laws of the Catholic Church at the time, no place of worship could be consecrated unless free from debt and having its fabric completed, so the consecration ceremony did not take place until June 28, 1910.
In 1977, as part of her Silver Jubilee Celebrations, the cathedral was visited by
Her Majesty The Queen. Although there was no religious service (the visit was to a flower show) it was highly symbolic as the first visit of a reigning monarch of the United Kingdom to a Catholic church in the UK since the Reformation.
and etc.