Another Royal Wedding

I've just read the news the Prince Charles is to marry Ms. Carmilla Parker-Bowles in spite of the fact that her first husband is still alive. Loose Cannon makes a number of good points: Charles will, when his mother dies, be head of the Church of England, a body whose traditional doctorine forbids divorce, Charles will also be Defender of the Faith; all this Loose Cannon deplores.



Also, it seems that the marriage will not be a church wedding but a civil ceremony followed by prayers and blessings in a church. What does this mean? The church isn't going to perform an invalid marriage, but it will bless their adultery and pray for it's success? Also the Queen (the current head of the church and defender of the faith) and the Archbishop of Canterburry have declared themselves happy about the engagement.



Loose Cannon, is upset by all this, and points out that it wasn't always so, Edward VIII was forced to abdicate when he chose to marry the divorcee Wallis Simpson. Unfortunatly, I can't share LC's hurt. The very reason their is such a thing as the Church of England in the first place is because Henry VIII wanted to flout Catholic moral and sacramental teaching by granting himself an annulment he had no grounds for and marry Anne Bolyn while Queen Catherine was still alive, you can hardly expect such an institution to maintain high standards, especially in opposition to the monarchy.



Rev. Fr. J.P. Parsons, one of the men most responsible for my becoming Catholic, was an ex Anglican. He told me on more than one occassion, that the key to understanding the CofE is that it is not a teaching church but a reflecting church, it reflects what most people in England think. So, when most of the English people opposed divorce, the CofE did too, now the moral climate of England has changed, the CofE has changed with it.



Needless to say, this is the exact opposite of what Christ intended for His Church. He gave the church prophets and apostles to lead the people, not to be lead by them.