For all you ladies out their macking on Prince Harry this will be very good news. For the past 300 years those in line to be King or Queen of England were prohibited from marrying a Catholic.
They could marry Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims. But no Catholics.
On the one hand, this kind of law is just nutty anti-Catholicism which should be done away with. But on the other hand, at least some of the reason they’re getting rid of it is that they just don’t give a darn about religion anymore. I think in some ways that’s more worrisome.
MSNBC reports:
A 300-year-old ban on heirs to the British throne marrying Roman Catholics would be overturned and discrimination against royal daughters removed under reforms proposed on Wednesday by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron has written to the leaders of the 15 other realms who share Queen Elizabeth as their monarch, including the Solomon Islands and the Grenadines, to request their approval, his office said.
Cameron wants to banish laws dating back to 1688 and 1700 designed to ensure a Protestant monarchy and barring anyone in line to the throne from marrying a Roman Catholic unless they relinquished their claim to the crown.
October 13, 2011 at 3:36 am
Howz about they remove the law against Catholics reigning while they are at it…
October 13, 2011 at 4:39 am
I think they passed "don't care about religion" and were accelerating when what's his name, the Queen's son, became the head of the Druid church as well.
October 13, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Honestly, I think this is sad. Like you said, it means they don't care about their duties to their religion anymore, not the opposite.
October 13, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Hopefully the Vatican will NOT reciprocate and begin allowing the Pope and Cardinals to marry Protestants. 🙂
October 13, 2011 at 3:26 pm
Why would a Catholic marry someone obligated to defend the faith of an apostate and heretical breakaway group?
October 13, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Matthew: to convert them to Catholicism by example of their strong Catholic faith, of course.
Duh!
😉
October 13, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Oooooh, I hope they hold a royal ball for Prince Harry to meet all the Catholic princesses in the world! My fairy godmother has been saving up to buy me a pumpkin carriage and glass slippers.
October 13, 2011 at 11:49 pm
I agree with Liesl, except unfortunately I don't have a fairy godmother. I guess I'll need to start saving for those nice glass slippers…
October 14, 2011 at 7:21 am
Prince Charles, a druid? Do you have a citation for that, Foxfier? The Queen is a member of the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards, which promotes Welsh language and literature and uses druidic ceremonial but is actually not religious in nature (per Wikipedia)
October 14, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Wil- generally a bad idea to trust Wiki on anything! It's worse than just asking a random person– neo-paganism is incredibly controversial, what with the various groups holding mutually contradictory views of what it is.
No citation, it was on CNN back when Archbishop of Canterbury was put in place.
October 14, 2011 at 4:19 pm
(the Welsh Gorsedd of Bards has good reason to NOT associate themselves with religion– "druid" was just recently accepted as a religion for tax purposes over there)
October 14, 2011 at 6:00 pm
The repeal of the Anti-Catholic provision of the Settlement Act has been proposed in the Parliament several times in the past. It is known that Queen Elizabeth II is unsupportive of making that change, so the likelihood of success is very low.
October 14, 2011 at 6:04 pm
BTW: The Queen would violate her sacred oath by allowing this change.
CORONATION OATH:
Archbishop. Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law? Will you maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England? And will you preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges, as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them?
Queen. All this I promise to do.
Then the Queen arising out of her Chair, supported as before, the Sword of State being carried before her, shall go to the Altar, and make her solemn Oath in the sight of all the people to observe the premisses: laying her right hand upon the Holy Gospel in the great Bible (which was before carried in the procession and is now brought from the Altar by the Arch-bishop, and tendered to her as she kneels upon the steps), and saying these words:
The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.
Then the Queen shall kiss the Book and sign the Oath.
October 14, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Oh who gives a rat's about the Brittish monarchy?
October 16, 2011 at 3:03 am
Has anyone taken a look at the C of E lately? If she swore to that oath, she's already broken it a hundred times over — and that's without allowing the possibility of a Catholic marrying into the line of succession.