Catholic King For England Again?

Saint Edmund of East Anglia

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Call to end bar on Catholic monarch.

By Gerri Peev - Political Correspondent

THE government is to consider abolishing the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that prevents Catholics ascending to the throne.The move was revealed by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, after he unveiled his sweeping draft Constitutional Reform Bill yesterday. While the bill did not include any move to abolish what Catholics say is legalised discrimination, the matter was raised in the Commons by the Livingston Labour MP, Jim Devine, a Catholic.Describing the act as “legalised sectarianism which has no role in the 21st century”, he called for it to be scrapped.Mr Straw told him the position was complicated by the monarch’s position as head of the Anglican church but accepted the law was seen as “antiquated” and said: “We are certainly ready to consider this.”

However, abolishing the Act of Settlement would also require changes to the Act of Union, which safeguards the role of the Protestant Presbyterian Church in Scotland. And, given Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s fears of the influence of Nationalists, the government may be reluctant to unpick parts of the legislation that formally holds the UK together.READ ALL

Huh. Well, who knows!

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4 Responses to “Catholic King For England Again?”

  1. Dr. Acula Says:
    March 27, 2008 at 6:36 pm

    Even if there was a Catholic Monarch in the land once known as “Our Lady’s Dowry” the British people are so secularised that they could possibly care less.

    Moreover, since the British Royal Family has no real power having a good Catholic Monarch wouldn’t change the culture anyway. Remember that Spain has a very anti-Life culture and it still has a Catholic King.

    From what I hear, there are many more Catholics who have claim to the throne than the House of Hannover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

  2. asimplesinner Says:
    March 28, 2008 at 12:43 am

    Any good Jacobite can tell you those Hannover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha types are nothing but a bunch of upstarts!

    That being said, the Queen gets mad props from me for sending her grandkid to serve in Afganistan and for herself having served as a diesel mechanic in the Royal Army Motor Pool during the second world war. Yes, the Queen was a grease monkey.

    And apparently, a good one at that.

  3. jacobus Says:
    March 28, 2008 at 9:21 pm

    Actually, England is more likely to have an Orthodox monarch before another Catholic one.

  4. asimplesinner Says:
    March 28, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    How do you figure? Which Orthodox church are you imagining a monarch would come from? There are no longer any Orthodox nations with ruling Royal Houses… Prince Phillip has supposedly returned to his Greek Orthodox faith - and his mother was a nun… But I am having a very tough time imagining a Greek Orthodox monarch of the UK…

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