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 new legislation will also remove the centuries-old gender discrimination rule that favours first-born sons over older daughters in the order of succession to the throne.

On the day on which the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced they are expecting their first child, a government spokesman confirmed that while the new law has not yet been introduced in the British Parliament, it is already de facto law, and William and Kate's first child will be able to succeed to the throne whether it is a girl or a boy.

But the new law — approved by all 16 members of the Commonwealth, including New Zealand — will not allow a Catholic to succeed to the monarchy.

Only Protestant members of the Royal Family who are descendants of Princess Sophia (1630-1714), the Electress of Hanover, a granddaughter of James I, can be king or queen.

Because the monarch is also head of the Church of England, he or she is required to take an oath to defend that church and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, praised the new legislation.

"This will eliminate a point of unjust discrimination against Catholics and will be welcomed not only by Catholics but far more widely," he said.

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II has paid tribute to relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of the founding of the Venerable English College in Rome.

In a message on the December 1 Feast of the English Martyrs, she said the college — established in 1362 as a hospice for English pilgrims — is "held in high esteem . . . as a training ground for pastors, priests and future leaders of the Catholic Church of England and Wales".

Sources:

Independent Catholic News

CNN Belief

L'Osservatore Romano

Image: Mirror

In a message Benedict said the British monarch has over the past 60 years been an "inspiring example of dedication to duty and a commitment to maintaining the principles of freedom, justice and democracy".

He also said she has played an important role in improving ecumenical and interreligious relations.

The letter, read out at a service of Thanksgiving in Rome, said: "I write to offer my warmest congratulations to Your Majesty on the happy occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of your reign. During the past 60 years you have offered to your subjects and to the whole world an inspiring example of dedication to duty and a commitment to maintaining the principles of freedom, justice and democracy, in keeping with a noble vision of the role of a Christian monarch.

"I retain warm memories of the gracious welcome accorded to me by Your Majesty at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh at the beginning of my Apostolic Visit to the United Kingdom in September 2010, and I renew my thanks for the hospitality that I received throughout those four days. Your personal commitment to cooperation and mutual respect between the followers of different religious traditions has contributed in no small measure to improving ecumenical and interreligious relations throughout your realms.

"Commending Your Majesty and all the Royal Family to the protection of Almighty God, I renew my heartfelt good wishes on this joyful occasion and I assure you of my prayers for your continuing health and prosperity."

Source

• Vatican Radio
• Image: The write side of my brain

Gillian Bouras writes of her memories of when Elizabeth II became queen, reflects on her reign, and says that "conscientiousness and devotion to duty now seem to be outmoded virtues. But many people my age, despite our political affiliations and persuasions, admire them still."

• Read Gillian Bouras' article
• Image: Mirror News

The possibility that a further heir to the British throne were raised a Catholic, means there is an "obvious difficulty" for that person to also be a head of the Anglican Church.

Currently, the Queen joins "in communion" with the Church of England, is the Supreme Governor of the Church and promotes the Anglican Church in Britain.

"The scenario does beg the question of whether it remains appropriate for the monarch to be required to be in communion with the Church of England," the committee said.

Suggesting that Parliament may with to reconsider the current relationship between the monarch and the Church of England, the committee said, "The most obvious difficulty in having a Catholic monarch - beyond the purely statutory obstacles - is the Crown's role as supreme governor of the Church of England."

Graham Allen, chairman of the committee, said the report was "leaving the door open for the Government if they want more change".

He added: "There could be more in this if the Government were prepared to ask us to go and delve into it a bit more."

A spokesman for the Church of England said: "You can't be Supreme Governor unless you are in communion with the Church of England.

"The sovereign should join in communion with the Church of England and it is integrally bound up with there continuing to be an established church, which is something that the Government has confirmed its commitment to."

Source

• The Telegraph
• Image: National Post

Three of the key moments occurred on visits to historically resonant places. At the Garden of Remembrance, she bowed her head before a monument to those who died for Irish independence; she met footballers at Croke Park stadium, where the first 'Bloody Sunday' massacre in 1920 robbed Britain of its moral authority to rule Ireland; and at Islandbridge, she honoured the 49,000 Irish who died for the Crown during World War I.

The first two recognised that Ireland's struggle to break free from the British crown had been legitimate, that British rule in Ireland had been often cruel. The third restored the memory of soldiers who were later seen as traitors to independence and shunned by independent Ireland.

Islandbridge was as important a symbolic moment for pro-Union Protestants in the North, just as her speech at a banquet at Dublin Castle on Wednesday night was an important moment of recognition of nationalist feeling.

The speech was beautifully judged - beginning with a greeting in Irish, A Uachtarain agus a chairde ("President and friends"), provoking Mary McAleese, the Irish president, to say "wow" three times.

"To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy," the Queen said. "With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all." The words had a particular poignancy because Lord Mountbatten, her husband's uncle, was killed in an Irish Republican Army bombing while sailing off the west coast of Ireland in 1979.

Continue reading more of The Queen in Ireland: the power of forgiveness

Arriving in Dublin on 17 May for a four-day visit, the queen will be the first British monarch to set foot in the republic since its founding in 1923 and the first to travel to Dublin since King George V in 1911.

She is scheduled to visit Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, which honors those who died fighting to free Ireland from British rule. She also will visit Croke Park Stadium, where British troops killed 14 people in 1920, and attend a state dinner in Dublin Castle, long a symbol of British power in Ireland.

The visit "will sustain a momentum of reconciliation," Archbishop Alan Harper, primate of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland, told ENInews. "It is an ... indication of the transformation of the relationship between the two countries. It has been very widely welcomed in the Republic and in Northern Ireland and is being looked forward to with genuine enthusiasm."

He also said that "a huge amount of work among the main churches has also gone into transforming relationships."

Read more of how the Queen's visit to Ireland might heal divisions

Source

• Image: Monarchist League