An ancient law banning Britain's monarch from adopting Catholicism or marrying a Catholic should be withdrawn, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales said yesterday.
Speaking ahead of a special multi-faith service to mark Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee celebrations, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said the law was out of date and that future monarchs should be free to marry whomever they wanted.
"It is not really and should not be relevant in today's world and today's Britain," he told Sky television.
"It's not so much that it is an act of discrimination against Roman Catholics - which it is - but it seems to me to be discrimination against the royal family." The law banning a monarch or heir to the throne from marrying a Catholic is set out in the 1701 Act of Settlement.
The Act aimed to ensure a Protestant succeeded to the throne in the aftermath of the revolution that saw King James II replaced by King William III of Orange.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor pointed out that while the law would ban Prince William, Charles's son and the second in line to the throne, from marrying a Catholic, he could still marry anybody of another faith, such as a Hindu or a Buddhist.
"That seems to me anomalous and I think it should go," the cardinal said.
Meanwhile, the Church of Ireland primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, spoke yesterday of a "growing maturity" in attitudes towards the monarchy in Northern Ireland.
This was "seen so recently by the acknowledgment by people of differing allegiances who have recognised the importance of the monarchy to so many", he said.
Speaking in Belfast at a service to celebrate the Golden Jubilee in Knock Presbyterian Church, he said that in Northern Ireland "for many of our people the monarchy holds a place of special meaning."
Though at times this had a ring "of what some would term sentimentality about it, it does represent what can only be described as a way of life, a way of thinking and an aspiration", he said.
And "beyond allegiance there is much which falls within genuine affection for Her Majesty. People have admired her determination to maintain those ideals of the Coronation oaths in the sea of change," he said.
As jubilee services were taking place up and down Britain yesterday, Queen Elizabeth returned to St George's Chapel, in the precincts of Windsor Castle, where earlier this year the body of her mother and ashes of her sister, Princess Margaret, were laid to rest.
Elsewhere, the Prince of Wales, with his sons Prince William (19), and Prince Harry (17), were in Swansea, south Wales, at a jubilee service in St Mary's Church.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex were at Salisbury Cathedral for the Wiltshire Jubilee service.
The Princess Royal, accompanied by her husband, Commodore Timothy Laurence, was in Scotland attending a jubilee thanksgiving service at Ayr St Columba, Carrick Park, Ayr.
Later, at Windsor, the Queen witnessed church leaders signing a covenant to work towards furthering Christian unity.
In the first agreement of its kind, Archbishop George Carey, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, Free Churches Group Moderator, Rev Tony Burnham, and Rev Esme Beswick, representing smaller churches, made the personal pledge in the presence of the Queen at Vicar's Hall.
The covenant commits each of the four church leaders to pray, work and consult together, and join together to work for justice.
It sets out their common understanding of the Christian faith and expresses their appreciation of the progress made in relation to unity between churches.