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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced Thursday that the government will seek to end a ban on Catholics and Jews advising the British monarch on appointments to the established (state) church.
Burnham, the first lifelong Catholic to serve as prime minister, said Sept. 10 that he had transferred his constitutional responsibility to advise King Charles III on ecclesiastical appointments to the Lord Chancellor, Alex Norris.
Burnham was obliged to take the step because the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 says that no Catholic may advise the monarch on appointments to offices in the Church of England and Church of Scotland. The Jews Relief Act 1858 has a similar prohibition relating to members of the Jewish faith.
Burnham said it was “unacceptable for there to be a legislative bar against people of any faith performing all the functions of my office.”
“The government will therefore introduce a bill at the earliest possible opportunity to correct this antiquated and archaic anomaly,” he said.
The National Secular Society, which
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