Future kings and queens of Britain will be able to marry Catholics — a legislative change that could affect the royal baby that Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting next year.
The new legislation will also remove the centuries-old gender discrimination rule that favours first-born sons over older daughters in the order of succession to the throne.
On the day on which the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced they are expecting their first child, a government spokesman confirmed that while the new law has not yet been introduced in the British Parliament, it is already de facto law, and William and Kate’s first child will be able to succeed to the throne whether it is a girl or a boy.
But the new law — approved by all 16 members of the Commonwealth, including New Zealand — will not allow a Catholic to succeed to the monarchy.
Only Protestant members of the Royal Family who are descendants of Princess Sophia (1630-1714), the Electress of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I, can be king or queen.
Because the monarch is also head of the Church of England, he or she is required to take an oath to defend that church and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, praised the new legislation.
“This will eliminate a point of unjust discrimination against Catholics and will be welcomed not only by Catholics but far more widely,” he said.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II has paid tribute to relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of the founding of the Venerable English College in Rome.
In a message on the December 1 Feast of the English Martyrs, she said the college — established in 1362 as a hospice for English pilgrims — is “held in high esteem . . . as a training ground for pastors, priests and future leaders of the Catholic Church of England and Wales”.
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Image: Mirror