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In view of the Prayer Week for Christian Unity (18-25 January), Queen Elizabeth has invited a Catholic bishop, the primate Murphy-O’Connor, to preach in the church of St. Mary’s in the royal estate at Sandringham. The event marks the end of five hundred years of antagonism and suspicion between the sovereigns of these islands, who are also supreme governors of the “Church of England”, and the Catholic Church. But one further concession is still lacking for the proper reinsertion of Catholics in the religious and civil life of the kingdom. That is the anti-Catholic legislation, the Act of Settlement of 1701, according to which Catholics cannot become sovereigns of the United Kingdom, nor can they marry the heirs of the English throne. A few days before going to Sandringham Card. Murphy-O’Connor himself called for the abolition of this law. Interviewed on the popular BBC radio programme “Today”, the cardinal called this legislation “an anomaly that needs to be abolished”. “I believe he added that the question needs to be tackled. It’s rather odd that a member of the royal family can marry anyone, a Buddhist for example, or any follower of another religion, but not a Catholic”. The cardinal explained that it would not be easy to modify the Constitution, at any rate in the short term, but that he would consult the archbishop of Canterbury and the other Christian leaders on the question. The relations between the two churches, however, have never been so good as during the primate’s sermon at Sandringham, Murphy-O’Connor said: “I feel today, as I preach in this church, in this circumstance, that this is not an isolated event”. “The spirit of God, present in all the Christian churches in recent years, impels us towards greater unity, a deeper communion”. “Ecumenism he added is a one-way street. There is no turning back”.
