The future in-laws?
Catholics can now be King or Queen of England, after 300 year ban
Downing Street has drafted a new proposal on the succession rules of the Royal Family of the United Kingdom. Under the new rules, the 300 year old ban on Catholics on the throne would end, and first born daughters would now have the right of succession over younger males.
The 1688 Bill of Rights , the Act of Settlement in 1701 and Act of Union in 1707 – reinforced by the provisions of the Coronation Oath Act 1688 – effectively excluded Catholics or their spouses from the succession and provided for the Protestant succession.
Neither Catholics nor those who marry them nor those born to them out of wedlock may be in the line of succession.
The law also requires the monarch on accession to make before parliament a declaration rejecting Catholicism.
As for me, it’s too late. But I’m thinking maybe if Prince William and Kate Middleton have a daughter (sooner rather than later) than she’d be just about the right age for my son when he gets older. If that worked out I’d certainly get some good tickets to football games in the UK.
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I think, as a young Catholic myself this is a good step in the right direction. However, I can’t help thinking for the everyday Catholic, like myself, this is not such a pressing issue as the law which prevents Catholics from being the Priminister. The government say that if a Catholic candidate was elected it would be banished. However, I like many people, feel that its mere existance stands for the discrimination Catholics have had to face in England, and it could be many years until we have a Catholic running. In my opinion the government should use this this oppurtunity to banish both laws that continue to alienate Catholics in this country.
I think, as a young Catholic myself this is a good step in the right direction. However, I can’t help thinking for the everyday Catholic, like myself, this is not such a pressing issue as the law which prevents Catholics from being the Priminister. The government say that if a Catholic candidate was elected it would be banished. However, I like many people, feel that its mere existance stands for the discrimination Catholics have had to face in England, and it could be many years until we have a Catholic running. In my opinion the government should use this this oppurtunity to banish both laws that continue to alienate Catholics in this country.