Charles gets church nod
2004-06-04 07:44
London - British church leaders have cleared the way for the heir to the country's throne, Prince Charles, to wed a divorcee following years of debate about the constitutional implications, a report said late on Wednesday.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the worldwide leader of the Anglican church, has given his personal blessing for the prince to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, the Times said on the front page of its Thursday edition.
Charles was previously married to, and divorced from, Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997, while Parker Bowles divorced her husband two years before that.
The issue of whether the royal heir can marry a divorcee has vexed constitutional experts for years, since the British monarch is the titular head of the Anglican church and thus officially expected to be beyond moral reproach.
Conservative Anglicans have long expressed opposition to Charles and Parker Bowles marrying in a church given their well-documented adultery with each other before the breakdown of their respective marriages.
However the couple were now "actively considering wedding plans" after Williams dropped his objections to the union following secret talks with the prince, the Times said, citing an unnamed friend of the heir.
Marriage is now a definite possibility, the friend - who is "authorised" to speak on Charles's behalf, according to the Times - was quoted as saying.
"It would be wrong to give the impression that they have not talked about it. That would not be right.
"But no one will rush into it or bounce them into it. It's a personal decision."
However any announcement would be impossible before the conclusion of a formal British police inquiry into the death of Princess Diana, which is still underway, meaning nothing would happen until "next year at the earliest", the friend said.