Cardinal hits out at Britain's `grubby' Act

BY SIMON CALDWELL
TiE LEADER of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has called for the abolition of an ancient law which stops Catholics from ascending to the throne or marrying heirs to the English Crown.
Cardinal Cormac MurphyO'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster, described the Act of Settlement 1701, as "rather odd" and said the constitution should be changed in the "near future".
The cardinal, who has been invited to preach to the Queen at her private chapel in Sandringham, Norfolk, told the BBC Radio Four Today programme that Britain's last remaining piece of anti-Catholic penal legislation was an anomaly that had to be removed.
He said: "I think in due time when it is right, I think the issue about the question of whether one of the Royal Family can marry a Roman Catholic is something that should be addressed, certainly.
"It is rather odd that a member of the Royal Family can many perhaps anybody a Buddhist — or anybody you like really except for a Roman Catholic, so I think there are some anomalies here.
"But it does touch on issues I think that have further implications with regard to matters of the Establishment and all those need careful thought. And for my part, I'd need to consult with other church leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, on this matter."
He added: "I think that here there is something which does involve matters of importance regarding the monarchy, the Established Church, the Free Churches, the Roman Catholic Church.
"There are delicate matters at stake and therefore I think one shouldn't be too rash about saying `this is going and should happen tomorrow'.
"I think when the time is ripe — and I won't say here exactly when it will be — I think it should be addressed because I think a lot of people in this country would think that this is an unnecessary bar and an anomaly which should be removed-" Cardinal Thomas Winning, the late Archbishop of Glasgow, had consistently campaigned against the Act, arguing that it should be repealed "sooner rather than later".
Writing in the Sunday Herald in December 2000, Cardinal Winning said: "The question is whether there is enough of a will among politicians preparing their General Election mani
festos to include within them a commitment to repeal the `grubby little secret' which still shames our nation."
He added: "I am on the record many times for having called the Act of Settlement 'an embarrassing anachronism', and have pointed out that no person of good will could justify the terms of an Act which discriminates against Catholics as such.
"It is quite ludicrous to suggest that if a dashing young princess from Spain or Belgium or Luxembourg were to sweep Prince William off his feet and the young couple wished to many, that somehow the British state would be brought to its knees."
The Act was a part of a whole raft of legislation brought in to ensure Catholics were kept from public life after the Catholic King James II was usurped in a Protestant coup in 1688.
At the time, James' brotherin-law and successor, the Dutch King William III of Orange, was ill and childless and the Protestant establishment was growing uneasy about the national rise of the Catholic Jacobite movement and the growth of the pro-Catholic Tory political faction in Parliament.
The Act bars anyone from becoming king or queen if they "profess the popish religion or shall marry a papist".
BY LUKE COPPEN
VOLUNTEER firefighter Michael Passlow spent Christmas Day saving a church from fierce bushfires raging around Australia's largest city, Sydney. But when he returned to his home in the Blue Mountains, he found it reduced to a glowing pile of ashes.
As the flames licked through his house, Mr Passlow, 46, was struggling to extinguish a fire that threatened to engulf the Catholic church in Warragamba, a town west of Sydney. A tree close to the church had caught alight. "If that tree went up, the church was going to go up," Mr Passlow said. "Our fire station was also going to go up and it was brand new."
His wife, Jayne, and five of their daughters were away having a Christmas meal with their eldest daughter Emma when a firestorm struck their home.
"Luckily we were all away at the time," he said. "There would have been no escape. It was a fireball. I actually did get back when it was still burning and the other firefighter I was with wanted to try to put the fire out, but I knew it was too late and told him we'd be better trying to save others."
Mr Passlow was one of 15,000 firefighters on duty on Christmas Day along a 372-mile arc of fire around Sydney. The fires, which started the day before, have destroyed about 150 houses and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.
Mr Passlow earns about £1,000 a year as a retained volunteer for the New South Wales Fire Brigade but said the money had nothing to do with it. "I've always done it just to help protect my house and other people's. If I get roasted, well, that's the way it goes.
"But don't think I'm a hero. All firefighters are the same. The rewards of being a firefighter are the mateship," he said.
Although none of Mr Passlow's family were harmed by the blaze, the family pets did not fare so well. Stephanie, a deaf and blind 14-yearold German pointer, the girls' rabbits and guinea pigs died in the fire. Improbably, five ducks nestled in the woodshed survived.