“…THOSE WHOM HISTORY HAD SEPARATED”

Posted By: July 16, 2023

“…THOSE WHOM HISTORY HAD SEPARATED”

—King Charles on his first visit as King to Northern Ireland. Sept.14, 2022.

By Fr. Sean McManus. July 16, 2023

No, Your Majesty, “history” did not separate the people of Ireland. Your great-grandfather, George V, and the British Parliament did that by their “Partition Act,” December 23, 1920. That Act would not have become law without the Royal Assent of King George V. That Partition/Separation Act deliberately and undemocratically carved out the mini-Six County State of Northern Ireland on a racist (anti-Irish) and sectarian (anti-Catholic) headcount, creating, in effect, a fascist state—guided by Churchill’s infamous declaration: “What if we arm the Protestants.”

And, of course, centuries before that, England had “planted” British Protestants (mostly from northern England and Scotland) in Ireland to ensure “separation” with laws passed to codify that “separation,”—to “keep the Catholics in their place” and keep the country loyal to the Crown, through Protestant Supremacy, brute force, and terrorism.

Indeed, apart from 1649 to 1660 (when the genocidal maniac Cromwell was in charge, and when there was no Monarchy), all the bad things done by England to Ireland were done by The Crown/Parliament … And if the rotten Legacy Bill is passed, is there much doubt that King Charles will give his Royal Assent.

If he did not hesitate to swear an appalling anti-Catholic Coronation Oath (“within the context of the Eucharist,” as the King’s own website stresses), will he have any scruples in giving the Royal Assent to that Bill?

However, in the matter of State-sponsored oppression and hatred —whether anti-Catholicism, anti-Black racism, or anti-Semitism (the three historic targets of the KKK, by the way), it is a great mistake to reduce the issue to being about the lack of individual virtue (even though the individual cannot escape all accountability and responsibility). With State-sponsored hatred, oppression, and institutionalized violence, we are talking about what Saint Pope John Paul II called the “structures of sin.” And there is no “structure” as fundamental to any country as its Constitution. And in the uncodified, unwritten British constitution Catholics, all Catholics in the world, (not just Irish/English Catholics) are demonized by being singled out and explicitly excluded from succeeding to the Throne … Like if the American Constitution explicitly excluded Blacks and America Jews from being President. But, thank God, the framers of the Constitution had the wisdom in the First Amendment to reject an Established Church.

When I was based in England and Scotland and observing Prince Charles, I felt he was a decent young man. I hope he will be the first Monarch since 1701 to exorcize this “structure of sin” from the British constitution. Because it justifies, condones, and promotes anti-Catholic hatred in Northern Ireland to deadly effect—as well as showing profound disrespect to the oldest and largest Christian Church in the history of the world.

King Charles is surely better than that? And the Anglican Church because it administered the anti-Catholic Oath— “within the context of the Eucharist”—must also work to change that disgraceful, hate-filled, bigoted Oath.