Was the royal wedding a Catholic wedding?

Answer 1

Royal wedding in England are not Catholic weddings although the Church of England is only one step away from Catholicism.

AnswerNo the Royal Wedding was a Church of England service. Moreover, Prince William and Catherine chose the traditional Book of Common Prayer service (of 1662) rather than the more modern Common Worship service of 2000.

In the UK, it is still against the law for an heir (or future heir) to the throne to marry a Catholic. This is for a simple reason in that the reigning monarch is the Supreme Governor under Christ of the Church of England. If a future heir to the throne like Prince William married a Catholic, the Catholic Church would insist that all children of that marriage, and hence future monarchs, were brought up as Catholics.

Until the Catholic Church recognises full communion with Anglicans, it would be a nonsense for a Catholic monarch also to be head of a Church of England whose existence and authority is still not recognised officially by the Catholic heirarchy, and whose orders of clergy (deacons, priests and bishops) are still not recognised as valid orders (despite apostolic succession) by the Catholic Church.

Furthermore, the Church of England isn't 'one step' away from Catholicism (as stated above). Despite sharing and celebrating Trinitarian doctrine, and the authority of scripture, the Church of England (apart from some minority groups within the Church) rejects the Catholic doctrines of purgatory, limbo, invocation of saints, the over-adulation of Mary (and non-Biblical doctrines surrounding her) and transubstantiation and the Catholic sacrificial theology of the mass, among other doctrines. Also, the whole of the Anglican Church rejects the authority of the pope. It sees these as man-made doctrines rather than doctrines supported and instituted by Christ.