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Last week, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he is going to ask Parliament to stop the ban on Catholic members from advising the Sovereign on the appointment of bishops in the Church of England.
Many readers might ask: “Huh? Why are politicians playing a role in appointing Church people?”
Ever since the Reformation came to England in the 1500s, the King or ruling Queen has been the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and in charge of appointing bishops.
However, as the power of Parliament has grown, the prime minister has “advised” the monarch – in other words, has a major role in appointing bishops.
“I am making this statement to bring to the House’s attention steps the Government is taking regarding Church appointments,” Burnham said in a Sep. 10 statement.
He is the first Catholic to become prime minister in Britain, but he doesn’t have all of the authority of his predecessors.
“Restrictions set out in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and the Jews Relief Act 1858 prevent persons professing the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths only from advising the Sovereign on appointments to the Church of England and Church of Scotland,” he explained.
He added that he is currently giving that responsibility to advise the Sovereign on Church appointments to Alex Norris, the Lord Chancellor.
“It is, however, 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,” Burnham said.
It may seem strange that a non-Anglican could have a role in appointing bishops in the Church of England, but it is somewhat common.
Margaret Thatcher was a Methodist, and the numerous Scottish leaders were members of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian.
Rishi Sunak, the last Conservative Party Prime Minister, wasn’t even Christian: He is Hindu.
The 1829 law that removed most prohibitions placed on Catholics in Britain still had some anti-Catholic features, however, including a rule saying the ruling monarch couldn’t marry a Catholic. That prohibition was lifted a little over a decade ago.
Catholics make up less than ten percent of the population in England, but there have been several prominent Catholic politicians in recent decades.
In the early 2000s, two of the three major political parties were led by Catholics – Iain Duncan Smith led the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2003, and Charles Kennedy headed the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006.
The man who was Prime Minister during the entirety of this period was the Labour Party’s Tony Blair, who converted to Catholicism when he left office in 2007.
The current head of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, is married to a Catholic, and her children are being raised as Catholics.
However, Catholics probably shouldn’t be too quick to celebrate their growing relevance in Britain.
The “rise” of Catholics in office is more a sign of the growing irrelevance of religion in the country.
The latest data show that less than half of Britain’s population identify as Christian, while nearly 40 percent say they have no religion at all. Only about 5 percent of people go to church every week, and most of them are older.
Burnham himself rarely attends church services and wouldn’t protest if a person called him only “nominally” Catholic.
Badenoch says she is agnostic, and although she voted “No” on the assisted suicide bill on Friday, she says she supports the idea of assisted suicide in principle.
There have been many stories recently on a “surge” of young people becoming Catholic, but the numbers are less than perfectly clear.
Church attendance dropped significantly during the COVID pandemic, and is slowly rising, but nowhere near the level it was a decade ago.
The National Centre for Social Research looked at these claims last December.
“So far then we have found little evidence of a religious – or more specifically a Christian – revival in Britain,” the Dec. 22, 2025, paper says.
“True, the decline in religious identity appears to have comes to halt. In addition, all religions have recovered to some degree from the adverse impact of the pandemic on regular attendance at their services or meetings.
However, attendance at a religious service or meeting has, in some instances at least, not returned to pre-COVID levels,” it adds.
The statement also noted that the decline in the Church of England is much steeper than the decline in Catholicism and non-Anglican protestant denominations.
Changes to British law now seem to allow a non-practicing Catholic to make appointments to churches few people actually attend.
Catholic leaders may want to hold on the champagne as they face the crises of the 21st century.
Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome
