Scottish Catholic Observer

When does an anti-Catholic act stop being as such an anti-Catholic act? Why, when you excise an anti-Catholic part of it. This is not a recycled joke from Monday’s Halloween ‘guisers,’ this is what began to happen last week when British Prime Minister David Cameron and Commonwealth leaders agreed in principal to pass legislation in all 16 Commonwealth countries to remove the section of the Act of Settlement which barred the heirs to the British throne from marrying Catholics.

And while, after these changes, the laws that govern royal succession will still prevent anyone but an Anglican from succeeding to the throne—enshrining inherent prejudice against all other faiths—this historic remnant of specifically anti-Catholic prejudice is finally to be expunged from the laws under which we live (and not before time.) The Act of Settlement has been on our statute books since 1701 and in spite of all the huffing and puffing about it being nigh impossible to achieve consensus among the Commonwealth countries to reform it, that is what has been achieved.

Now we could ask: Why has it taken so long? Why is the act being reformed and not repealed? While recognising the progress that has been made, these remain very good questions that will one day, very soon, need to be answered. And it takes only a realist, not even a cynic, to see that while politicians amending archaic reminders of historical wrongs should be welcomed, it must not abate current calls from the Catholic community for protection of religious freedom and respect for faith in new legislative proposals on issues currently before Westminster and Holyrood.

In spite of recently conceding that Christian rights required protection just as much as ‘gay rights’ in British overseas aid decisions, domestically Mr Cameron’s coalition government will soon mirror the Scottish Government in opening the issue of same-sex ‘marriage’ to consultation. There can be no doubt that this is to appease a lobby that, while vocal and driven, is not representative of our society.

Another group of well-funded and motivated lobbyists who are in the minority are those continually pushing to change how we value life in this country through test cases and legislative proposals on so-called ‘assisted suicide’ which are tantamount to writing death warrants for our old, sick and infirm.

Not forgetting, of course, the misinformed activists who, faced with the fresh focus on sectarianism in Scottish society in the past 12 months, dredged up the old chestnut that Catholic schools are the cause rather than, as is well documented, an important and successful answer to the problem.

Let’s hope the historic oppression of the Catholic Faith that is about to be removed from the laws of our land isn’t all too quickly replaced with legislation enforcing new and more troubling forms of suppression of Catholic values and tradition.