Catholic bishops have told the British government that members of the royal family who marry Catholics under the provisions of new legislation will not be obliged to bring up their children as Catholics.
During a House of Lords debate, Lord Wallace of Tankerness said he had been assured personally by Monsignor Marcus Stock, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, that the canonical requirement of Catholics to raise children in the faith was not always binding.
“I have the specific consent of Monsignor Stock to say that he was speaking on behalf of Archbishop [Vincent] Nichols as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and can inform the House that the view taken by the Catholic Church in England and Wales is that, in the instance of mixed marriages, the approach of the Catholic Church is pastoral,” he said.
“It will always look to provide guidance that supports and strengthens the unity and indissolubility of the marriage. In this context the Catholic Church expects Catholic spouses to sincerely undertake to do all that they can to raise children in the Catholic Church.
“Where it has not been possible for the child of a mixed marriage to be brought up as a Catholic, the Catholic parent does not fall subject to the censure of canon law,” said Lord Wallace, who was speaking on behalf of the British government.
The assurance was given during the third reading debate of the Succession to the Crown Bill, which for the first time in more than 300 years will allow British monarchs to marry Catholics. However, the sovereign must be a member of the Church of England.
The bill will also permit female first-borns to have the right of succession over any young brothers.
This means that if the child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, due in July, is a girl, she will have the right to rule ahead of any younger brothers and will also be free to marry a Catholic.
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