Posted on 01/08/2013 7:40:37 AM PST by marshmallow
Prince of Wales reportedly met Whitehall officials to share his concerns about fast-tracked changes to the UK's constitution
The Prince of Wales is said to have raised his fears of "unintended consequences" of the government rushing to change the laws of succession to the throne.
In a private meeting with Richard Heaton, permanent secretary of the Cabinet Office, Charles reportedly voiced concerns over what would happen if his grandchild, due next year, were to marry a Roman Catholic.
The succession to the crown bill, which will change the ancient laws governing the royal line of succession to ensure the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child would succeed to the throne regardless of gender, has been published and is expected to be fast-tracked through parliament at the earliest opportunity.
The planned reforms, presented by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, would also allow the couple's first-born to marry a Catholic though not to be one, without having to renounce the right to succeed.
Sources told the Daily Mail Charles outlined to Heaton concerns that the move, which he is said to support in principle, could damage the relationship between church and state.
Echoing concerns raised previously by constitutional experts and theologians, Charles reportedly raised the issue of what would happen if his grandchild's future spouse were Catholic and insisted any children be raised as Catholics. This would either bar their child from the throne or compromise the monarch's role as supreme governor of the Church of England.
Canon law does not stipulate that children from a marriage between a non-Catholic and Catholic must be raised in the Catholic faith. But the Catholic must make a declaration "that I will sincerely undertake that I will do all that I can within the unity of our partnership to have all the children....
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Constantine the Great?
Well said.
Charles is the answer to an expert-level trivia question.
If they’re going to do monarchy, they should do it right and go with the Jacobite line!
FWIW, Constantine may have thought he was in charge of the Church, but he wasn’t. The Emperors, and later the Holy Roman Emperors, fought it out with the Popes for centuries as to who was in charge of the Church. The Emperors lost.
Regretably, however, Henry VIII won.
I guess he’s afraid that either he won’t be around to say, or nobody will heed his plea “...to rid me of this turbulent child.”
Establishing a Republic, and disestablishing the Church of England is my proposed solution to this issue.
Gee I never would have thought that Prince Charles and I worry about the same thing.
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