www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Call to lift Catholic monarchy ban

I guess this is church news, since it would effect a definate change in the British outlook towards the state church.

Call to lift Catholic monarchy ban

Press Association
Saturday July 17, 2004 10:38 PM

Prime Minister Tony Blair could boost the peace process in Northern Ireland by lifting the ban on Catholics ever becoming King or Queen, it has been claimed.

The Irish Republic's Green Party leader Trevor Sargent called on the Prime Minister to lead the fight against sectarianism by changing the 1701 Act of Settlement.

The Act bans Catholics from ever becoming the monarch and requires the King or Queen to be in communion with the Church of England and uphold the Protestant line of succession.

As Greens on both sides of the Irish border prepared to launch a joint paper next week on the future of the Good Friday Agreement, Mr Sargent said: "Not only does the Act of Settlement embed sectarianism but it gives the all clear to those who make sectarian comments.

"What we in the Greens are asking for is the British Government to lead by example in the fight against sectarianism.

"In our submission to the review of the Good Friday Agreement, we are urging the British Government to send out the right signals to people in Northern Ireland. A good starting point would be amending the Act.

"A simple legislative amendment is a pretty straightforward example of how the British Government can lead by example."

In December 1999, MSPs unanimously backed a Scottish National Party motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for the Act to be changed.

Other prominent supporters of a change have included the Guardian newspaper, Conservative peer Lord Hamilton, SNP leadership candidate Alex Salmond, Labour MP Tony Wright and the late Cardinal Thomas Winning of Scotland.

In December 2000, Cardinal Winning described the Act as "an embarrassing anachronism" which discriminated against Catholics and which no-one could justify.

He argued: "It is quite ludicrous to suggest that if a dashing young princess from Spain or Belgium or Luxembourg were to sweep Prince William off his feet and the young couple wished to marry, that somehow the British state would be brought to its knees."

� Copyright Press Association Ltd 2004, All Rights Reserved.

Surely this would make history big time. I wonder if a Queen or King was Catholic who would then be the unofficial head of the Church of England. The Archbishop of Canterbury?


Mary Jo

An accidental ommission ? I think not !
Yet more evidence that 'Chuck', the poor ol' Prince of Whales, will never be King, and the love of his life 'Camilla' shall never be Queen. :p

Hritzko

Yes, a great idea, but.....that would also pave the way for a Moslem monarch as well. That will open a can of worms.

Porter,
No! The Episcopal See of Cantebury has been a "sedes vacante" ever since the reformation.
Stephanos I

PS
By way of rumor, it is said that secretly the Queen has leanings of being a Catholic, and also Tony Blair, whom I would not be surprised, would become Catholic as soon as he leaves office.
Stephanos I

All of Britain & the rest of the world's Anglicans will leave the Church England if Prince Charles becomes King. Maybe Queen Elizabeth is just setting the stage for what others are already thinking.

Hritzko

Stephanos,

Thank you, Brother in Christ, for answering my quandry. Brushing up on my Latin which for me initially goes back a half century since my first class I think sedes vacante would mean 'empty or vacant place'. Is that correct, or did I lose something in my translation?

Gratefully,

Mary Jo aka Porter

Stephanos I wrote:

The Episcopal See of Cantebury has been a "sedes vacante" ever since the reformation.

What is "sedes vacante"

Pani Rose

Indeed, it would be "easy" for PM Tony Blair to become Catholic as he already has enough "practice," the Prime Minister being married to Catholic Mrs. Blair, who raised openly all their children Catholic.

(As for "all of Britain," weren't the British (or, at least, the English) originally Catholic before King Henry VIII had the itch?)

Amado

P.S. There were some Catholic eyebrows raised when, during PM Blair's last official visit to the Vatican, he received Holy Communion with his entire family during a private Mass, allegedly with dispensation from the Holy Father!

OK folks - joke time over here - sorry it is not likely to happen in any of our lifetimes .

This has been discussed before here [ and about our dreaded Tone, an Anglican, receiving Communion on more than one occasion in an RC Church ] .

Before tempers get frayed and someone [ possibly me ] loses their temper and says things that should not be said, could we please leave this now.

Anhelyna the adopted Scot

If the numbers are accurate regarding Sunday worship by Anglicans, seems like most of Britain has already left the Church of England without Charles' being King.

A recent story from the British Isles is making it way to the US. Apparently, the late Jim Henson of Muppets fame found in Prince Charles the inspiration for one of his characters, Gonzo the mosquito. Both Charles and Gonzo share a hapless life playing second fiddle to a bigger media star. They share the same prominent facial features (ears and nose), and their respective girlfriends are named "Camilla".

Dear Friends,

With the Administrator's indulgence and permission, just a note on this fascinating topic.

Why the Irish would want to see the ban against Catholics in the British Royal family lifted is quite the mystery.

There are IRA who are Marxist-atheists and, as one Irish priest once discussed with us, there are IRA funerals of those of there number killed by the British that have a decidedly Celtic pagan flavour - the names of the old Celtic gods are invoked.

And the Irish want freedom from Britain - the whole issue is really a non-issue from the Irish perspective, I think.

And I've never understood why the Irish nationalists are so in favour of Roman Catholicism, apart from the fact that the Irish are Catholic, since, historically, it was a pope who gave the English King Henry VIII the Harp of Tara - the English did not win it in battle. In addition, it was the Church of Rome that "put down" the Celtic practices at the synod of Whitby in the seventh century, assuring the ascendancy of the Latin Church throughout those islands.

(I'm all for a native Irish monarchy or "Ard Righ" and there is an organization there that is promoting that).

If there is a religious shift in the Royal Family, it will more than likely be toward Orthodoxy and not Roman Catholicism, although there are British aristocrats who have become Catholics.

The Queen could be described as an Anglo-Catholic and often speaks of "going to Mass" to an Anglican parish on Sundays and holidays.

But the Royal Family, which is Canada's Royal family as well, has much stronger ties to Orthodoxy, including canonized Orthodox saints and martyrs linked by blood to the British line.

Orthodoxy is much less likely to raise eyebrows among the British given that it generally shares with Protestantism an aversion to Rome . . .

One could also make the argument that Rome via its historical political machinations is the author of its own misfortune in Britain, dating to the times of Pope St Pius V.

For instance, Rome seemed to care not a wit about the fate of the English Catholics (who always called themselves "English Catholics") and when they petitioned Rome NOT to go through with formally excommunicating the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I (she was already Protestant, there was nothing to excommunicate), Rome was insensitive to their plight and decided to excommunicate her anyway - a symbolic gesture that really meant that Catholics could refuse obedience to her and legitimately plot to have her removed.

It was Rome, the argument goes, that put English Catholics in the situation where they were deemed traitors to their own country and monarch.

I think that argument may go too far, but English Catholics were often very loyal to their Anglican monarchs, including the Stuart kings.

King Charles I, in fact, preferred his Catholic subjects over his Protestant ones as the latter were only too ready to revolt against him, especially over his inclination toward "High Church" (and therefore suspiciously Roman Catholic) liturgical conventions.

As for Hritzko's assertions that there will be an uproar if Prince Charles became king - that is simply silly.

If there is such an uproar, it will be from those who are already against constitutional monarchy and wish the American republican system on us.

Although why anyone would wish that is also a great mystery!

God save the Queen!

Alex

Given what we know about the Prince of Whales, I'm not sure how he can lead the Church of England. If you think attendance is low now watch what will happen if King Charles becomes head of the Anglicans. If the British Parliment allows him to become King, then I think that there will be a separtion of 'monarchy' from 'state religion'. Perhaps the 'Anglican Rite' will finaly become reality within the Catholic Church.

Hritzko

I know that this is a little off the topic but look at the absurdity of the situation in the Lutheran State Church in Iceland. It is the elected President of the Government who is the head of the Church, and that can mean that the head of the Lutheran Church in that country is an avowed atheist.
Stepahnos I