According to the British press, one of Queen Elizabeth’s grandsons has made the unfortunate mistake of falling in love with a Catholic:

Peter Phillips, the Queen’s eldest grandson, may have to give up his place in the line of succession to the throne after it emerged that his bride-to-be is a Roman Catholic.

Peter Phillips is engaged to Autumn Kelly, a Canadian who was baptised as a Catholic

The engagement between the 29-year-old son of the Princess Royal and Autumn Kelly, a Canadian management consultant, was announced by Buckingham Palace last week. But no mention was made that Miss Kelly, 31, had been baptised as a Catholic, a fact that could prove embarrassing to the Royal Family and the Government.

The 1701 Act of Settlement bars monarchs and their heirs from becoming or marrying Catholics, a source of anger for Church leaders who have repeatedly called for its repeal. Under the Act, Mr Phillips will be required to renounce his right to the throne – he is 10th in line at present – or Miss Kelly will have to formally give up her membership of the Church.

Buckingham Palace said yesterday that a wedding date had not yet been set and “if a decision has to be made, it will be made at the time of the marriage”. Relatively little is known about Miss Kelly, who moved to Britain shortly after meeting Mr Phillips at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in 2003.

The Tablet, the Catholic weekly, has now established that she was baptised on June 18 1978 at St John Fisher parish church in Point-Claire, a suburb of Montreal. A spokesman for the church told The Daily Telegraph that Miss Kelly’s mother, Kitty, had authorised the information to be disclosed, saying that her daughter was proud of her religion.

John Gummer, the former Tory minister who is a convert to Catholicism, said: “It is inhuman in the 21st century for anyone to demand this.”

Mr Gummer, who said that he had introduced a ten-minute rule Bill earlier this year to overturn the legislation, added that Gordon Brown had been preparing to announce plans to end discrimination against Catholics last month, but was dissuaded by “Right-wing nominal Anglicans”.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, told The Tablet that he had every sympathy for Mr Phillips, who works for the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh, and his fiancée.

“Whether a person be fortieth or second in line to the throne, it is wrong that they be deprived of that right because they have fallen in love and chosen to marry a Roman Catholic,” he said.

I wonder what that almost-but-not-quite-Catholic Tony Blair thinks of this…

Photo: Autumn Kelly and Peter Phillips, from the London Telegraph