Newsweek reports that Great Britain is considering removing some of their anti-Catholic laws from the books.

The British royal family is all about tradition. But even this august institution has to confront the realities of the 21st century. For more than 300 years, it has been an inviolable rule that neither monarchs nor their spouses can be Roman Catholic. The rules of succession also require that a first-born son gets the top job, bypassing any older sisters. Those restrictions could finally be history, according to a report today in London’s Guardian newspaper.

The Guardian, which often advocates anti-monarchist positions, says advisers to Prime Minister Gordon Brown are currently reviewing proposals to abolish both these long-held rules. A Brown spokesman neither confirmed nor denied the report, explaining only that “changes to the law on succession would be a complex undertaking … requiring the consent of legislatures of member nations of the Commonwealth.” The changes are reportedly part of a much broader constitutional review currently on the desk of Wilf Stevenson, who is a close friend of Brown’s as well as his new constitutional adviser. That may give the reforms—long pushed by human rights advocates—their best shot at passage in years.

Pope Benedict right now is giving his best evil laugh right now in Rome, rubbing his hands together, and petting his cat. “Excellent. For centuries we’ve waited. Soon now England will fall under my power too. Bishops! Fetch a pretty young Catholic girl and dangle her under the nose of one of those princes in Britain. Muhuhahahhahah! Now nobody can stop me.”