c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Andrew M. Greeley is a Roman Catholic priest, best-selling novelist and a sociologist at the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center. Check out his home page at http://www.agreeley.com, or contact him via e-mail at agreel(at)aol.com.)

UNDATED _ I am not a fan of British royalty.

The royal family has been a symbol of racist English imperialism used to dominate the world for more than a century _ and parts of the world for half a millennium.

Past claims rooted in this symbol _ that the English monarch was, say, the Emperor of India or Queen of Ireland _ were so gratuitous and so oppressive one is appalled they were ever taken seriously and continue to be taken seriously by too many Americans.

Individual members of the royal family may be harmless enough. But given the history of English colonialism in Asia and Africa, and even in the British Isles _ Scotland and Ireland, it seems fair to say the institution of the monarchy has been evil.

Supporters of the monarchy hail it as a symbol the English can rally around. Fair enough, if they want that kind of symbol. Nonetheless, let it be remembered what that symbol has meant for many non-English people who suffered and died at the hands of English imperialism.

I never paid much attention to Diana, the late Princess of Wales. I did not get up to watch her wedding, refused to read news stories about her when she came to Chicago, and now find myself offended at the attention so many Americans pay to her in death.

I do not mean I refuse to mourn her death. I mourn the death of any young woman who has lived a tragic life and suffered a tragic death.

On the contrary, I am furious at what happened to her. She is just one more victim of the institution of the monarchy, the Royals, if you will. The parasite photographers and the drunken chauffeur are only proximately to blame for Diana’s death. The Royal Family killed her.

She seemed a lovely, innocent young woman when the Royals chose her to become the wife of the Prince of Wales, a man who never seemed to be very much.

It is said Diana was seduced by the prospect of someday becoming Queen of England. But the Royals never counted on her charisma and courage.

It now appears she would have brought more grace to that role than it has seen in centuries; certainly more grace than her ex-husband has brought to his role. He’s a cad, a coward, and a cur who has been in a long-standing love affair with an older and once-married woman _ an affair he seems to have no intention of ending.

The death of Princess Diana is a price England had to pay for the symbolism of the royal family. Even if she had lived out her allotted years, the marriage still may have ruined her life.

Indeed, it seems it’s in the nature of English royalty that its members become deformed human beings. One searches in vain to find a recent English monarch of whom it could be said that he or she was even moderately intelligent, moderately human, and moderately able to lead anyone.

One has to go back to Charles II, who replaced Oliver Cromwell’s theocracy, to find one who made any real-life difference at all _ and his morals make Prince Charles look like a paragon of virtue.

England might be much better off if it would choose a new royal family every century or so and pension off the previous crowd.

Oddly enough, if Prince Charles possessed the moral strength to be faithful to his wife and if she had been able to raise her sons the way she wanted, England may have had such a new beginning. Or perhaps the culture of monarchy would have deformed her as it seems to deform all caught up in it.

So I will pray for Diana and grieve for her, but I will not watch her funeral and find it vulgar the citizens of this republic are obsessed by her death but don’t seem to understand why she really died.

MJP END GREELEY