Princess Diana’s butler asked a Catholic priest if she could marry a Muslim in the months before her death, her inquest heard yesterday (22.01.08).
Popular on LondonNet
Father Anthony Parsons of the Carmelite Church in Kensington, claimed Paul Burrell, who worked for the princess for 10 years, wanted to know whether a Muslim could marry a non-Catholic in a Catholic church.
Father Parsons told the jury at London’s High Court: “It was on an evening in 1997 that I was again invited round to their home (the Burrells’)
“At some point during the course of the evening Paul Burrell asked me, ‘Is it possible for a Muslim to marry a non-Catholic in a Catholic church?'”
But the Catholic priest said he never followed up Burrell’s query.
He said: “Had I wanted to find out whether marriage under the circumstances was a possibility I would have needed to approach the (local) bishop or members of his marriage tribunal at the Diocese of Westminster.
“I’m not sure exactly when Paul Burrell asked me about the suggestion but I never followed through with it because it was around the time of the Princess Diana’s death,”
Burrell had previous told the jury how Diana – who was a member of the Church of England – had wanted to marry her surgeon boyfriend Hasnat Khan, a Muslim. The couple split in June 1997, just two months before her tragic death.
When she was killed in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, she was dating Dodi Fayed, another Muslim, and he also died in the accident. Burrell has always claimed Diana had no intention of marrying Dodi.
However, Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, claims the couple were killed by the British establishment because they were about to announce their engagement. Her inquest also heard how problems with the blood samples from the body of Diana’s driver Henri Paul suggested a “conspiracy or a cock-up”.
Professor Robert Forrest said “biologically inexplicable” levels of carbon monoxide in Henri Paul’s blood were “analytical error or a mystery”. He said: “This is the one thing which worries me most about this investigation. I still have not managed to achieve an intellectual resolution which satisfies me.
“I look to the jury (to decide) – conspiracy or cock-up?”
