Wednesday, April 24, 2013

British royals married to Catholics no longer need to raise their children Catholic?

"Catholic members of royal couples won't have to raise kids Catholics" (CNS, April 23, 2013):
LONDON (CNS) -- Church leaders have told the British government that members of the royal family who marry Catholics under recently passed legislation will not be obliged to bring up their children in the Catholic faith.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness, speaking on behalf of the government, said he had been assured personally by Msgr. Marcus Stock, general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, that the canonical requirement of Catholics to raise their children in the faith was not always binding.

"I have the specific consent of Msgr. Stock to say that he was speaking on behalf of Archbishop (Vincent) Nichols (of Westminster) as president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and can inform the House that the view taken by the Catholic Church in England and Wales is that, in the instance of mixed marriages, the approach of the Catholic Church is pastoral," he said.
I would love to have an infallible definition of the word, "pastoral"! Wouldn't you?

1 comment:

Chris said...

Perhaps the good Monsignor has been Jesuitical in his reading of Catholic teaching?

In any event, if he really does speak for the Archbishop, and Archbishop really did say what His Lordship claims, then don't we have a heretic for Archbishop of Westminster?