New Opportunities For Catholics

"RCIA on Thursday nights....yes.....I might be able to make that.."

It seems the neighbours are making changes to the monarchy.  The Queen of England and her various realms have assented to Britain's abolishing the law that excludes a Catholic from marrying an heir to the throne. Up until now if an heir married a member of our Church they were excluded from the succession.  The heir could marry anyone else - Jew, Hindu, Muslim etc, but not a Catholic.  So that is good news. 

I presume the line of succession will now be revised to bring back those who married Catholics - Prince Michael of Kent, for example, (he's so far down it won't make a difference, but it reverses discrimination). 

The law will still require the monarch to be a member of the Church of England - that's fair enough, for now, given that he or she is the head of that ecclesial community.  It would require a reorganisation of the Church of England, perhaps even disestablishment, to allow the monarch be a Catholic.  That might come in the future if a monarch renounced his or her position as head of the communion and transferred it to a bishop. All things are possible. 

In the meantime, I wonder if those who converted to Anglicanism to marry an heir will now think better of their decision and come home?  I hope so, the door is always open.