Can the British royal family now marry Roman Catholics?

Answer 1

They probably could these days with not too much trouble, but traditionally the monarch of England is the head of the Anglican Church, a variant Christian church which was started by Henry VIII when he broke from the Roman Catholic Church in order to divorce his wife. The British royal family is, by tradition, members in good standing of the Anglican Church.

Answer 2

No they can't as the royal family is Anglican (Church of England). Earlier this year, Catherine Middleton (now the Duchess of Cambridge) had to convert to Anglicanism from Catholicism before marry Prince William.

Answer 3

Prince William can not marry a Roman Catholic. King Henry the VIII wanted to divorce his first wife because she did not produce a male heir to the throne. King Henry asked the pope to approve the divorce and the pope refused and had him excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. King Henry then formed the Church of England and refused any royal family from marrying a Roman Catholic. The Vatican has documents that King Henry the VIII wrote the pope about the divorce and the excommunication.

Answer 4

It's to do with the schism that freed England from papal authority. Long, long ago, the pope's influence was very powerful, even over countries as far away as England. Henry VIII broke the country free from papal influence, creating the Anglican religion which acknolwedges the monarch as the mortal head of the church, not the pope.

This meant that many roman catholic traditions were forcibly ceased, and roman catholics themselves were sometimes persecuted. There is no state-sanctioned persection of worshippers these days, but it is still a part of the royal family's rules of primogeniture that Roman Catholics can never be part of the line of succession.

Answer 5

The ruling monarch of England is also the titular head of the Church of England. A Catholic could not, in good conscience, become a leader of a church not in full union with Rome. British laws also forbid a Catholic from doing so.

Answer 6

Because she's head of the protestant church.