Britain mulls allowing Catholic monarchs

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LONDON, Sept 25(AFP):The British government is drawing up plans to end a 300-year-old exclusion of Catholics from the line of succession, as well as ending the priority given to male heirs, a newspaper reported today.
The Labour government would introduce the necessary legislation after the next election, according to The Guardian, which has long petitioned for a change in the law that critics have condemned as discriminatory.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office declined to comment, although Justice Minister Jack Straw said in March that the government was "certainly ready to consider" reviewing the "antiquated" ban on Catholic monarchs.
Rules laid out in the Bill of Rights 1688, the Act of Settlement 1700 and the Act of Union 1706 state that the monarch must be a Protestant, and any royal who marries a Catholic is barred from the line of succession.