One Step Closer to a Repeal of Act of Settlement

Edit:  The prohibition against being married to a Catholic for an heir to the throne has been lifted.

Of course, leave it to Archbishop Nichols to highlight what's wrong with this as if it were something good:

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, said the elimination of the "unjust discrimination" against Catholics would be widely welcomed.

"At the same time I fully recognise the importance of the position of the established church [the Church of England] in protecting and fostering the role of faith in our society today," he said.

Link.

Let Catholics Be Kings of England: Archbishop of Wales

Editor: It's just a matter of time before the Act of Settlement is a thing of the past.

Give royal daughters equal rights to throne, says Archbishop of Wales

Archbishop Barry Morgan

ARCHBISHOP of Wales Barry Morgan has given his support to a growing move to give royal daughters equal rights to succeed to the throne as their brothers.

Dr Morgan is the latest senior UK figure to call for the rule, which stops the eldest daughter of a monarch from inheriting the British throne if she has a younger brother, to be scrapped.

The Anglican leader considers it absurd the present Queen would never have been crowned if she had a brother.

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/04/20/let-a-catholic-take-throne-says-the-anglican-archbishop-of-wales-91466-28550857/#ixzz1K7Aspw2L

H/t: Pewsitter

Revoke the Act of Settlement Now: Catholic Windsor Condemns Abortion

Lord and Lady Windsor

The Act of Settlement is a piece of benevolent legislation passed down and transmogrified for centuries to accommodate the growing insignificance of the Church of England in public and private life.  Like Don't Ask Don't Tell, it can be abolished.

This man should be King.

Tim Walker. Edited by Richard Eden 6:30AM GMT 20 Dec 2010

The Duchess of Kent has withdrawn from public life to such an extent that she is often described as a recluse, but her son Lord Nicholas Windsor is determined to speak out over causes that he believes in.

Lord Nicholas, 40, who lost his place in the line of succession when he became a Roman Catholic, has written a controversial article in which he claims that abortion is a bigger threat to Europe than al-Qaeda and Islamic terrorism.

He describes abortion as "the single most grievous moral deficit in contemporary life" and calls for a "new abolitionism for Europe" in which abortion, like the slave trade, can be abolished.

Read further at the Torygraph...

H/t: Pewsitter

More Calls to Abrogate England's Law Forbidding Catholics from Throne

The Law being referred to is the Act of Settlement which has undergone a lot of changes over the years. This law was originally established to protect the throne from getting a Catholic Monarch and to further restrict the Catholic nobility. It might be a safe bet that there will be still more changes to this law, especially considering the fact that, unfortunately, England is becoming less and less a Confessional State. So it may be that the abrogation of this law will be accomplished for the wrong reasons, arguably, in much the same way Catholic Emancipation happened.

The public is being urged to back a campaign to scrap a 300-year-old law which prohibits Catholics ascending the throne, ahead of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain next month.

The Coalition Government is currently asking voters to nominate laws which they think restrict civil liberties and should be abolished or amended.

The suggestions will form the basis of the so-called Freedom Bill, announced with much fanfare by Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, earlier this year.

At the same time, however, ministers have said that they have no plans to change the Act of Settlement, which also bars members of the Royal family marrying Catholics.

Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP for the Western Isles, has called for a mass online vote for a change in the law, which he denounced as “state sectarianism”, ahead of the Pope’s visit.

Introduced in 1701, the Act of Settlement states that no sovereign “shall profess the Popish religion or shall marry a Papist”.

The exclusion of Catholics was designed to ensure a stable monarchy, after decades of rows over the state religion.

More than three centuries since its inception, it continues to affect the Royal family.

In 1978, Prince Michael of Kent, the Queen’s cousin, lost his place in the line of succession after marrying a Catholic.

Just two years ago, Autumn Kelly, a Canadian and the new wife of Peter Phillips, the Queen’s grandson, renounced her Catholic faith to allow her husband to remain in succession.

Before he became Prime Minister, David Cameron indicated that he would like to see the Act changed.

But within weeks of the coalition taking charge in May, it was announced that there were “no current plans” to amend it.

The Scotsman, here...read more.

Monarchist urges end to barrier against Catholics

Canwest News Service

November 29, 2009


The strongest supporters of Canada's constitutional monarchy are urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other Commonwealth leaders to "modernize" the centuries-old rules of succession that bar Catholics from the throne.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to informally discuss possible reforms to the 1701 Act of Settlement with fellow Commonwealth leaders during their summit in Trinidad.

Robert Finch, chairman of the Monarchist League of Canada, said that such reforms would mean that those pushing for this country to become a republic would "no longer be able to claim the monarchy discriminates against Catholics."

He said: "The queen has no official religious role whatsoever in Canada, so it really shouldn't be an issue to allow Catholics to become king or queen of Canada."

The succession issue is a long-standing source of objections from many Catholics and critics of the monarchy in both Canada and Britain. A British MP's bill to rewrite provisions of the 1701 act was scuttled this year by the government -- but with assurances from Brown that reforms would be considered after discussions with other Commonwealth countries.

Link to original...

Brown Urges Overturn of Law Banning Catholics From Monarchy

Once again time proves us right. We knew this was an effective possibillity, it was only a matter of time really.

By Thomas Penny and Kitty Donaldson

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A ban on Roman Catholics becoming British monarchs and the precedence given to men over women in the succession to the throne needs to be overturned, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today.

Changing the law, which would need the agreement of the 16 Commonwealth Realms where the queen is head of state, may be discussed in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting starting in Trinidad and Tobago on Nov. 27, Brown’s spokesman Simon Lewis said.

“The Act of Settlement is outdated and most people recognize the need for change,” Brown told lawmakers in the House of Commons today. “Change can only be brought about, not only by the United Kingdom, but all the realms where her majesty is queen.”

The 1701 Act of Settlement means any Catholic marrying into the royal family must make a choice between abandoning Catholicism in favor of their spouse’s right to the throne. The law also places the sons of a monarch ahead of their sisters in the line of succession.

The queen is monarch in 16 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, according to the British Monarchy Web site. All 16 are members of the Commonwealth and will be present at the heads of government meeting.

The law is “state-sponsored sectarianism,” said Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in the U.K. “This conference provides an ideal forum for the prime minister to raise the issue and urge his colleagues from governments around the world to condemn, repeal.”

The former Autumn Kelly, the Canadian-born wife of Peter Phillips, the queen’s grandson, converted to the Church of England before their wedding last year so that he remained 11th in line to the throne. In 1978, the queen’s cousin Prince Michael of Kent was removed from the line of succession after marrying a Catholic.

To contact the reporters on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net; Kitty Donaldson in London at kdonaldson1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: November 25, 2009 12:59 EST


Read original...


Our related and prophetic article...

A royal chapel for Roman Catholics

Christopher Howse at the Guardian is hoping against hope, perhaps, that the next King and Queen of England will be Anglicans and that the Act of Settlement 1701 will be in place.


The Queen's Chapel is a mysterious place. To be sure, it is open for services, but these take place only on Sundays between Easter and the end of July. It is locked the rest of the time.

A remarkable claim in a new book by David Baldwin is that the monarch can turn it over to the ministrations of the Roman Catholic Church for any members of the Royal family who care to receive them.

One might have thought such provisions would have been quashed by the Act of Settlement of 1701, which forbade heirs to the Crown to marry Catholics. But in Royal Prayer (Continuum, £16.99), Mr Baldwin demonstrates that the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1661 is still in force and kicking.

Read more...

More reading on the Coronation Oath, here.