WILLS' AND KATE'S APRIL APPOINTMENT IN THE ABBEY..........

One week after the announcement in London of the Royal Engagement between Prince William Wales and Catherine Middleton, the eagerly waited declaration of their wedding date and the location of their nuptials next year were revealed.  Wills and Kate will be wed in Westminister Abbey in London, site of three dozen British coronations since the year 1066, including of the reigning Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953, where her Royal Wedding also took place to Prince Phillip in 1947.  Westminister Abbey is also more recently remembered as the location of Prince William's mother, Princess Diana, in 1997.  The official announcement made earlier this week sets their wedding date for Friday April 29, the Feast of St. Catherine Sienna, in the Abbey.  Some 1 billion people worldwide are expected to watch the festivities, as the future King of England takes a bride.  At The ThanksGiving Dinner table on Thursday I dined with a young British woiman in her twenties, Clare, who is attending college at Sacramento State University.  She is dating my friend Chris Mugnaini, and when his mother Teres, asked me if I will be tuning in for the Royal Wedding next April, Clare was both surprised and pleased to hear that I will be.  As the first part of this blog column indicates I will be watching for the pageantry and splendor the British bring to such occasions and to enjoy and take in the history and tradition in such a such as Westminister Abbey, the occasion of this nuptial union denotes..........Fr.  Troy