Western leaders turn to Catholicism … What gives …?

For centuries the monarch has constitutionally been the supreme governor of Church in England, the main emblems of establishment. Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, suggested that he could see a day when the British monarch is removed as head of the Church of England. It would not be “the end of the world” if the Church of England was “disestablished,” he told the ‘New Statesman’ magazine. (via Labour party mulls ouster of Queen from Church of England).

A trial balloon …?

Sometime back another trial balloon was floated – when,

Justice Minister Jack Straw said in March that the government was “certainly ready to consider” reviewing the “antiquated” ban on Catholic monarchs.

Rules laid out in the Bill of Rights 1688, the Act of Settlement 1700 and the Act of Union 1706 state that the monarch must be a Protestant, and any royal who marries a Catholic is barred from the line of succession. (from’Britain mulls allowing Catholic monarchs: report in Hindustan Times)

Catholic Track Record

Conversion of Western political leaders to Catholicism …

What was the reason for Tony Blair to convert to Catholicism? Is that ‘dog-whistle’ religiosity with a unified Christian army against the ‘evil forces of Islamic Fundamentalists?’

Jeb Bush, brother of George Bush has already converted to Catholicism. Will George Bush follow? In February 2004, a post in Tehelka magazine documented a new aggressive campaign by US Christian evangelical groups – approved by George Bush.

Daniel Burke writes Washington Post thus,

Bush attends an Episcopal church in Washington and belongs to a Methodist church in Texas, and his political base is solidly evangelical. Yet this Protestant president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians. These Catholics — and thus Catholic social teaching — have for the past eight years been shaping Bush’s speeches, policies and legacy to a degree perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history.

The British split from the Roman Church was a political move that pushed the decline of Vatican’s power. Vatican’s refusal to grant Henry VIII’s a divorce was itself a political decision.

Another political decision? The political logic of this decision?

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