UK gov't perpetuates state-sponsored sectarianism, says cardinal, criticizing British PM
Jul 12, 2007
The refusal of the new British prime minister to move to repeal the 300-year-old Act of Settlement constitutes nothing more than an acceptance of and support for “state-sponsored sectarianism,” said a Scottish cardinal and long-time critic of the “pernicious and anachronistic” legislation.
EDINBURGH, Scotland (Catholic Online, 7/12/2007) – In an 850-word commentary that appeared in the July 12 issue of The Irish Catholic, a lay-run independent weekly based in Dublin, Cardinal Keith Michael Patrick O’Brien, archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, wrote that, while “displays of outright bigotry may be alien” in Scotland, “anti-Catholic sentiment often lurks beneath the surface.”
He also called for creation of a “Charter for Religious Freedom” to protect the rights of all people, those professing a religion and those not.
The existence of the law, passed in 1701 to allow succession to the throne of England only through the Protestant line and formed the basis of Scottish law in 1707, undermines efforts to eradicate sectarianism throughout the society, the cardinal added.
The Act of Settlement “has no place in a modern European state, especially one currently grappling with the issue of interfaith tolerance and respect,” he said. “It constitutes nothing more than state-sponsored sectarianism.”
The law represents the “most obvious display” religious prejudice and “institutionalized anti-Catholicism” in Scotland, he stated.
“It is difficult to see how one agency of the state – such as the Scottish government – can promote the idea that discrimination on religious grounds is wrong, when another part of the state – namely an act of the Westminster Parliament – expressly permits and promotes just such discrimination,” Cardinal O’Brien said.
He said that he was “deeply disappointed” that new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown decided, after much speculation and internal government discussion, to not bring forward proposals for the repeal of the Act of Settlement. The cardinal had directly urged Brown, whose constituency is located within the prelate’s archdiocese, to repeal the act that is “an outstanding example of bigotry and sectarianism in the United Kingdom.”
Critics of the 300-year-old act, which is widely regarded as being a clear breach of the Human Rights Act, were surprised that reforming the legalisation was ignored by the prime minister on July 3. Press reports suggest that Brown, while lobbied hard on the issue, opted to concentrate on the relationship between parliament and the executive, rather than on modernizing the monarchy.
Cardinal O’Brien called for the establishment of a “Charter for Religious Freedom” that would “recognize religious freedom as a fundamental human right grounded in the dignity of the individual, which recognizes the right of the human person to act in accordance with conscience.”
He said that such a charter provide “the path out of religious intolerance.”
“This is needed in order that Scots of all faiths and none will feel that their beliefs are protected and respected by their fellow citizens,” the cardinal said, adding that “it would ensure that no one was forced to act in a manner contrary to their religious beliefs, nor restrained from acting in accordance with their religious beliefs.”
Further, he noted, religious bodies would have “a right to demonstrate and teach the social relevance of their religious beliefs and a right to manifest their religious beliefs by corporately establishing and maintaining institutions and services and by conducting them in accordance with those religious beliefs and values.”
He added that governments do not have a right to command or inhibit acts of religion, nor to force actions contrary to conscience
“We have come a long way in tackling sectarianism but we must journey further until the blight it represents is completely eradicated from our country,” the cardinal said, pointing to the Act of Settlement as among those things that must be confronted from “our sometimes tragic history and … embittered enactments of an earlier age.”
“Only in doing so,” he concluded, “can we pray that as we travel towards the future, the baggage of historical hate will be dropped by the wayside.”
Last year, the cardinal launched an attack on the 300-year-old Act of Settlement, decrying “state-sponsored sectarian discrimination” which leaves a blight on the cultural landscape.
In remarks to the Glasgow-based Scotland on Sunday published Aug. 6, he said Scotland remains afflicted by a “shadowy sectarian culture.
He said that sectarianism is codified in law through the Act of Settlement.
"Our constitution contains legislation which describes my faith as 'the popish religion' and defines me and my co-religionists as 'papists'. That this arcanely offensive language enjoys legal sanction is outrageous,” Cardinal O’Brien said.
He said that sectarianism will continue to thrive until the British constitution is changed to amend the settlement act.
“Anyone who seriously believes that introducing legislation aimed at eradicating sectarian attacks, which are often verbal, while elements of the very lexicon of hate they seek to abolish remain on our statute books is indulging in willful ignorance."
"How can the state … claim that religious discrimination is wrong,” he asked, “when the state in the form of an act of Parliament states that it is right?"
Cardinal O’Brien called upon “all those involved in anti-sectarian initiatives, at every level to accept and acknowledge that this legislation constitutes a blight on their efforts and its repeal would dramatically improve the prospects of their work bearing fruit."
Change in the Act of Settlement would have to be ratified by 15 parliaments of the British Commonwealth and would require amendments to at least eight separate acts stretching as far back as 1688, and including the Union with Scotland Act of 1706.
Opponents of repeal believe that repeal could lead to a Catholic assuming the throne, and could lead to the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state religion, as the English monarch must swear to defend the faith and be a member of the Anglican Communion.
Earlier in 2006, Blair rejected calls for repeal.
British Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor of Westminster urged repeal of the law in June 2002.
The Act of Settlement, he said, "is 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."
He said at the time the law needed changing so that Prince William could marry someone of any faith. "I think the future monarch should be able to marry who he wants," he said.
"Talking about Prince William, he can marry by law a Hindu, a Buddhist, anyone, but not a Roman Catholic,” he said. "That seems to me anomalous and I think it should go."
UK gov't perpetuates state-sponsored sectarianism, says cardinal, criticizing British PM