Gordon Brown’s government could use a Papal visit
Seeking divine inspiration in his sea of woes, Gordon Brown could be angling for Pope Benedict XVI to visit Britain when he meets the Pontiff in Rome today.
A visit to Britain by the Pope would be something of a coup for the Boy from the Manse. Britain hasn't had a papal visit since John Paul II in 1982. Since then, Tony Blair has become the highest-profile convert to the Roman Catholic Church in the UK, following in the doughty footsteps of Ann Widdecombe.
Brown has invited Benedict before. It happened in 2007 during a visit to the Vatican to promote a child vaccination programme in the developing world when Brown was PM-in-waiting and still Chancellor. A date was penciled in for September last year, but nothing happened.
This time he has to more to offer - the possibility that Britain's 300-year-old state discrimination against Catholics could be ended before too long.
Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is known to be seeking the repeal of the 1701 Act of Settlement that prohibits a Catholic from taking the throne in Britain or marrying the heir to the throne as part of more wide-ranging reforms to the Constitution.
The reforms, which include the final removal of the hereditary peers from the Lords, have been repeatedly delayed, but are being put back on the agenda by a Government desperate to be seen to be doing something to modernise Britain, while its economy collapses around Brown's big ears.
The Government's hand is being forced by Evan Harris, the chirpy doctor-cum-Lib Dem MP, who came fifth in the MPs' ballot to introduce backbench bills and has tabled Royal Marriages and Succession to the Crown (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill 2008-09. Harris is guaranteed a second reading debate for a full day in the Commons on March 27 when the Government will be forced to come up with a response to his measure.
A Papal visit would not be without controversy. Benedict has adopted a hard line on abortion, contraception and totally disagrees with Brown's support for stem cell research to put Britain at the leading edge of the new technology. He was brought up in Nazi Germany and his recent rehabilitation of the Holocaust-denying RC Bishop, Richard Williamson, has incensed many. But despite some protests, thousands would turn
out in Britain for the Pope.
Benedict may never have heard of Evan Harris but the reports back to the Vatican are certain to suggest that the centuries-old anti-Catholic state in Britain is changing - just what Brown needs to convince the Pope that the time is right to come to Britain, in the hope that some of the Papal gold-dust will rub off on his threadbare government.
THE MOLE: BROWN IN ROME
FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2009
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