BY LUCY LETHBRIDGE
A FEW CATHOLIC notables this week joined the fierce debate over the question, raised by a senior Anglican traditionalist, of whether the alleged adultery of the Prince of Wales makes him unfit to be King.
In an interview on Radio 4's Today programme last week, the Archdeacon of York, George Austin, condemned Prince Charles's attitudes to his marriage vows as "cavalier", and warned that the Prince of Wales could not be trusted with the vows of coronation.
While Anglican leaders seemed split over the question of the Prince's suitability as head of the Establishment Church, a few eminent Catholics spoke out on the issue.
Catholic statesman Lord Rees Mogg told the Catholic Herald "any Roman Catholic finds the idea of a crowned lay person at the head of the Church entirely anomalous. From an ecclesiastical point of view it is one of the things about the Anglican communion with which we disagree".
Catholic MP for Hyndburn, Greg Pope (Lab) said "We have a rapacious press that feeds on this kind of tittle tattle and I don't think it reflects in any way Prince Charles's ability to be king".
Dr John Habgood, the Archbishop of York, dismissed the comments as " the Archdeacon's own personal opinion."