CANTERBURY, England (RNS) A royal row has broken out between Church of England bishops and Prime Minister David Cameron’s liberal-minded coalition government over a planned bill to change ancient laws governing the royal line of succession.
The government wants to pass the proposed Succession to the Crown Bill in time for the birth of a baby to Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton this summer.
The new law would ensure that if the first royal baby is a girl, she will become heir to the throne rather than have to yield to a male sibling.
The bill would also change a law passed in 1701, when a French invasion aimed at restoring Catholicism to Protestant England seemed certain, that stipulates that the British monarch cannot marry a Roman Catholic.
A royal row has broken out between Church of England bishops and Prime Minister David Cameron’s liberal-minded coalition government over a planned bill to change ancient laws governing the royal line of succession. Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, has expressed concern about the proposed changes, according to unnamed friends who briefed a royal watcher at the Daily Mail. *Note: This image is not available to download. RNS photo by Dan Marsh via Flickr (http://flic.kr/p/czjLC9).
Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, has expressed concern about the proposed changes, according to unnamed friends who briefed a royal watcher at the Daily Mail.
The conservative tabloid carried a front-page story on Monday (Jan. 7) that reflected Charles’ anger that the bill was being rushed through the House of Commons without proper consultation with Buckingham Palace.
According to the paper’s senior correspondent, Simon Heffer, Charles’ main concern is that one of his descendants might marry a Catholic and have a child that is brought up as a Roman Catholic.
Were the child brought up as a Catholic and assumed the throne, there would be a constitutional crisis because the reigning monarch is also Supreme Governor of the established Church of England.
Now, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey has entered the arena, telling the House of Lords that Charles’ concerns “need to be listened to very carefully.”
“The government’s instincts to allow female heirs to succeed are wholly right but to avoid any unintended consequences of the proposals for the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church there must be much greater consultation and discussion,” Carey said.
The Church of England leader in the House of Lords, the Rt. Rev. Tim Stevens, said on Tuesday that the lack of full communion between the Church of England and the Catholic Church “effectively renders a Catholic heir incapable of being the Supreme Governor of the Church.”
“So clearly that’s a more complicated issue than it appears at first sight,” Stevens said, adding that any threat to the established status of the Church of England was something bishops “would have to resist.”
On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg dismissed Charles’ fears and said “extensive discussions” had taken place with members of the royal household in drafting the proposed bill.
KRE/AMB END GRUNDY
7 Comments
rev. daniel hesko
What a strange debate considering that for almost 1000 years the English monarch was a Catholic.
Lee
Good on Prince Charles for voicing his concerns. But I don’t think it is Roman Catholicism he has to worry about.
Alan
Nothing like seeing two anachronistic institutions in the monarchy and the church battle it out over increase irrelevancy…
EssEm
Liberal obsession with “non-discrimination” and “equalities” leads to all kinds of cultural erosions in those (almost exclusively White and Western and Christian) societies that have become entranced by it. Opening the throne to a female over a male and trying to make the sovereign’s consort’s religion irrelevant are both cut from the same piece of ideological cloth.
Fr. John Morrris
Since the most important monarchs of British history during the last 500 years have been women, it only seems natural that a man should not be given preference over a woman for the throne. Why should the only person in Great Britain with no religious freedom be the monarch? On the other hand why should the Church of England be controlled by the secular authorities. It would be better to disestablish the C of E to liberate it from state control, and give the British monarch religious freedom. Of course, something will have to be done to provide public funding to maintain the many beautiful cathedrals and churches as part of the architectural heritage of the English people.
Mack Hall
God forbid (so to speak) that the English monarch be of the same faith as St. Augustine of Canterbury, St. Thomas Becket, St. Thomas More, a cloud of witnessing English saints, and a thousand years of stout English folk. Time to dismiss King Henry’s made-up play-church.
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