Financial Times Editorial: Catholic tastes

Financial Times Editorial: Catholic tastes
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Published: March 27 2009 22:34 | Last updated: March 27 2009 22:34
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65c3d728-1b04-11de-8aa3-0000779fd2ac.html


Who would have thought it? The British royal family, it transpires, is not all that keen on absurd anachronisms. Since 1689, royals who wish to accede to the throne have been banned not only from practising Roman Catholicism but also from wedding people who do. But among reforms being discussed by the Queen and the prime minister is a plan to allow British royals to marry Catholics. About time too.

These rules are remnants of the most successful propaganda effort in British history – the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. It was an invasion by 15,000 foreign troops, which scared a sitting King into exile so that a Dutch princeling could seize power. But a sophisticated media campaign spun it as a peaceful transfer of power from a Papist brute to a great Protestant prince at the invitation of British patriots.

The English were a good audience for this bile; the oppressiveness of France’s Sun King was considered proof that Catholicism was not compatible with freedom. This tribal prejudice led the British to prefer to import kings (or have kings imported upon them) rather than risk the whiff of incense from home-grown heirs. This hatred is still strong in Northern Ireland and in parts of Scotland.

Changing the law about who may take the throne is not easy: if any of the other countries where Her Majesty is head of state do not approve and stick with the old rules of succession, they may get different monarchs from everyone else. It would be nice to find work for junior royals as sovereigns of far-flung places but would also cause regal ructions.

Her Majesty should go further. Roman Catholics should be allowed to hold her office. One can understand she may be nervous at such a move, but it has been at least 250 years since Catholics made a serious attempt to take the throne. She is probably safe. A Catholic monarch might have difficulty performing the monarch’s current role of head of the established churches. But the solution to that problem is another newfangled idea: separation of Church and State.