I think that it is the miracle of modern TV that has emphasised the 'importance' of these figures.

The media has always tended to give a lot of publicity to high profile figures and they don't come any higher than royalty and the Popes.

The general public have, for the main part, been conditioned by the media to accept that these people are different and that even the smallest of happenings is noteworthy. We are also led to believe that they are 'part of the family' and so a death in the family is a major event, in which 'we' must be involved.

Just look at the success of magazines like Hello and you can see how hungry the public in general is for news of celebrities. Footballers and their wives are held up as icons. Minor royals are reported on as if their affairs are of paramount importance to the life of the nation. And the public encourages this by buying the papers and watching the events on the tube.

The new religion seems to be the cult of celebrity. These are real peolple to be worshipped, they can be seen and sometimes touched and so have a reality that an invisible, unknowable god cannot compete with. This is the modern day version of the bread and circuses of Roman times IMO.