Catholic World News News Feature
British Royal Leaves Throne Line To Become Catholic August 20, 2001
LONDON, Aug 20, 01 (CWNews.com) - In the second-highest profile conversion to Catholicism by a British royal in recent times, the younger son of the Duke and Duchess of Kent forfeited his 25th place in line to the throne of England by leaving the Church of England.
Lord Nicholas Windsor, 31, followed in the footsteps of his mother who became Catholic in 1994. According to the 1701 Act of Settlement, no Catholic can become monarch and no one can remain in the line of succession if he marries or becomes a Catholic. Windsor's brother and uncle both lost their rights to succession when they married Catholics.
"I can confirm that it is true, but I would prefer to say no more than that," Windsor said. "I consider the time and place to be a private matter." He was believed to have been received into the Church at Easter.
The Act of Succession has become controversial in Britain recently because many Catholics consider it to be discriminatory and offensive. Some officials in the Church of England and the Labor Party have said they would welcome a change to the law.
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