Scottish Catholics against Henry VIII. It’s not a joke, it is the initiative of Alex Salmond, leader of the second most important Scottish party, the “Scottish Nationalist Party”, which, making the positions of the local Catholic Church its own, asked Tony Blair to repeal the “Act of Settlement”, the British act that prevents Catholics becoming kings of the United Kingdom and bars the throne even to those members of the Royal Family who decide to marry a Catholic man or woman. This act is the consequence of the Reform made by Henry VIII over three hundred years ago, which took civil rights away from Catholics, which they only got back in 1829. During a recent visit to Westminster, card. Keith O’Brien asked the politicians to think of repealing the Act, which, according to Salmond, “is a clear institutional discrimination against millions of our fellow citizens and causes social divisions based on religion”. "This act would not go far if it discriminated against another religion", stated a spokesman of the Scottish Catholic Bishops. Blair did not take long to answer: "The Act said a government’s spokesman is theoretically discriminatory, but it does not have to be repealed because it has no consequences on the role of Catholics within public life".
