Defender of the old faith?

In a similar way that his taste in architecture values tradition, so it appears with the Prince of Wales and Christianity.

The prince, who was 65 on Thursday, this year paid a visit to St Stephen’s House, the Anglo-Catholic theological college in Oxford.

Now the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has said that the prince seems “thoroughly at home” when he visits Westminster Cathedral. He told The Sunday Telegraph: “I don’t sense any discomfort when he is in a Catholic church. I am told occasionally when he is abroad that he happily goes to Mass, and is at peace with that.” 

Prince Charles, who will become supreme governor of the Church of England when he accedes to the throne, visited Westminster Cathedral in 2010 for a peace service on the second anniversary of the death of Jimmy Mizen, a Catholic boy who was killed in an unprovoked attack in south-east London.

A Clarence House spokesman said that when abroad the prince “regularly attends services at Anglican churches, and also often visits Catholic churches”, along with other places of worship.

It is understood, however, that when he visits a Catholic Church abroad he goes up for a blessing and does not receive Communion. Members of the Church of England are permitted to receive Communion in a Catholic Church if they are unable to access an Anglican place of worship.