Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
10 Jan 2013
10 Jan 2013
Prince William's and Duchess of Cambridge's first child expected by July
New British legislation to allow a future monarch to marry a Roman Catholic has hit a stumbling block at the eleventh hour.
Prince Charles has urged his government to reconsider plans to amend the rules, saying he fears "unintended consequences" if the proposed legislation in its current form goes ahead.
The legislation would end the 300-year old policy that bars Catholics and spouses of Catholics from the throne.
While the terms of the proposed new legislation will allow members of the royal family to marry Catholics without sacrificing their chance of succeeding to the throne, the legislation will retain the ban on a Catholic monarch, since the King or Queen is by law the head of the Church of England.
However the complication is that under Catholic canon law, the children of such a marriage should be raised as Catholic and this is where the Prince of Wales sees a potentially serious difficulty in the lines of succession since the children raised as Catholics would remain barred from the throne.
Act of Settlement does not allow a Royal heir to marry a Catholic
Unless this is resolved or separate legislation presented to the British parliament there could be another stumbling block for Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, expecting their first baby in seven months. Bound up in the law proposed law is the end to the preference for male offspring in the line of succession making it possible for the daughter of a monarch to become queen if she is the oldest child.
According to Richard Blackburn, a Professor of Constitutional Law at King's College, London raising these complications at the eleventh hour is probably because Prince Charles and others in the Royal family were not fully consulted on the issue even though the Bill was first discussed more than two years ago.
Moves to allow women to inherit the throne began with Prime Minister, Gordon Brown who believed it was high time the ancient Act forbidding Catholics or their heirs to ascending to the throne was updated along with primogeniture which gives a son precedence over a daughter when it comes to inheriting England's crown.
When David Cameron was elected a short time later, he agreed that an heir to the throne should be free to marry a Catholic without having to forfeit the throne as well as the removal of the longstanding tradition of primogeniture so that if Prince William and his wife's first-born was a baby girl, she would take precedence and could become monarch ahead of any of her younger brothers.
King Henry VIII
This was more in keeping with modern times and modern attitudes, he said and both sides of British parliament seemed to agree.
But while many British MPs, including previous prime ministers, have thought it anomalous for a Catholic to be prevented by law from becoming the King or Queen of England, until the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton there was little political will for reforming the 300 year old Act of Settlement - an Act which came about through ambitious and ruthless means.
It is King Henry VIII who is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church - as well as his six wives and mistresses. Henry failed to be granted Papal authority to divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne Boleyn which brought about the English Reformation, the king's excommunication, the Dissolution of Monasteries, as well as a number of subsequent beheadings and further marriages.
By the time of Henry VIII's death in 1547, Parliament's involvement in making religious and dynastic changes had been firmly established.
But it was not until almost a century and a half later in 1701 that British Parliament passed the Act of Settlement which excluded Catholics or their spouses from succeeding to the throne. This ensured only Protestants inherited the throne and under the Act, Catholics and those who married Catholics or were born to them out of wedlock forfeited their right of succession to the British crown.
The Act also required that every monarch, on accession to the throne make a public declaration before the UK Parliament, rejecting Catholicism.
Prince Charles wants legislation re-considered
In recent years Prince Michael of Kent, who married Maria-Christine Von Reibnitz and raised a Catholic and educated at Sydney's Kincoppal, lost the right of succession, as did the Earl of St Andrews. Then in 2008, when Peter Phillips, son of the Queen's daughter, Princess Anne, announced he would marry his partner Autumn Kelly, it emerged she had been baptised a Catholic. The only way he could keep his place in the line of succession was for her to forego Catholicism and become an Anglican.
However until the 300 year ban can be lifted, British MPs as well as Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand must give their consent. But even here there is disagreement with Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman insisting as a sovereign state, Queensland would pass its own legislation on the matter rather than join the other States who have referred to the Commonwealth and Federal Government's and its ability to make changes on the matter.
"We have one Crown in Australia," says PM Julia Gillard unhappy with Queensland's decision to "go it alone" and whose actions may prevent a legally binding consensus being reached, even though the state agrees to the changes.
Prince Charles' views on the matter were leaked after the Prince had a conversation with a civil servant. But constitutional lawyers believe the Bill is being rushed through without proper consultation and the wide scope for disagreement on repealing the bar on marriage to Catholics.
SHARED FROM ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY
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