But an effort by a Catholic MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to change the Succession to the Crown Bill so that a Catholic could become king or queen was unsuccessful.

Rees-Mogg described the current exclusion as a "grating unfairness", adding that he thought the Church of England could still be protected as the established church in the United Kingdom.

The bill specifies that the children of a monarch must be brought up as Anglicans if they are to retain their place in the line of succession, given the sovereign's role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

"A Catholic may marry an heir to the throne, but may not then maintain the succession by bringing up a child of that marriage as a Catholic. Now the reason I object to this is that it is an attack on the teaching of the Catholic Church," Rees-Mogg said.

Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith said there was no public support to allow Catholics to succeed to the throne. Introducing such a fundamental change would also undermine the Church of England at a time when "instability was not welcome".

Rees-Mogg's amendment to allow a non-Anglican monarch to hand over the ecclesiastical role to a regent was rejected.

A Catholic MP from Northern Ireland, Mark Durkan, said the language proposed in the succession bill relating to the Catholic religion was offensive.

"The choice we're making...is basically putting a twenty-first century license on arcane and offensive language, quite sectarian provisions. Provisions which, if a politician in Northern Ireland used that same language on a political platform, people would be talking about incitement to religious hatred," he said.

The bill still has to go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny. The 15 other realms of the Commonwealth have already given their agreement.

The changes will mean that if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child, expected in July, is a girl, she can become monarch even if she later has younger brothers.

Sources:

Reuters

Catholic Herald

Express

Image: The Anglophile

The issue, to be discussed at a Commonwealth leaders summit later this month, has come to a head after Cameron sent letters to his Commonwealth counterparts seeking support for the changes.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has expressed support for "these reasonable modernizations".

Any changes to eliminate the discriminatory provisions would require agreement from all Commonwealth nations.

Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952 after the death of her father, King George VI, because she had no brother.

In his letter to Harper and the other Commonwealth leaders, Cameron stated: "We espouse gender equality in all other aspects of life, and it is an anomaly that in the rules relating to the highest public office we continue to enshrine male superiority."

His comments followed the launch of a campaign by a group of British MPs to "modernize" the Act of Settlement to give both women and Catholics equal status to men and non-Catholics in the line of succession.

British Labor MP Keith Vaz, backed by a number of other MPs, had introduced a resolution in the U.K. Parliament to amend the 1701 act by scrapping provisions that prevent Catholics from becoming king or queen, bar anyone who marries a Catholic from the line of succession and give men priority in the line of succession.

The 2008 wedding of the Queen's eldest grandson, Peter Phillips, and his Canadian bride, Autumn Kelly — a Catholic-born Montrealer — also ignited debate around the rules of succession. Before their marriage, the Canadian woman gave up her Catholic faith and converted to the Church of England to preserve her future husband's position as 11th in the line of succession.

Vaz had urged the renewal of a 2008 all-party agreement to amend the law, and in January called on Cameron "to legislate an end to these outdated, sexist and anti-Catholic aspects of the constitution."

Source: The Gazette