I think I could become a fan of Jeffrey Donaldson.  Granted he looks like Daniel O'Donnell and a certain curate in Drogheda, but he is more pro-life than most of the Catholic politicians in Stormont and in the recent spat over changing the Act of Settlement, I find myself agreeing with him.  He said that a Catholic monarch would owe first allegiance to the Vatican.  Okay, his terminology is a bit off and that allows Alisdair McDonnell to use some political cover, but Jeffrey is correct that a Catholic monarch's first allegiance should be to the Church headed by the Pope.  That's why the King of the Belgians and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg refused to sign legislation they knew to be wrong.  Catholic monarchs know that they are part of something greater than their individual country;  they know that it's not my country right or wrong.  And Jeffrey is correct in that.

Radio Ulster dragged in President Kennedy to the debate - his famous Houston Speech in which he told a group of protestant ministers that he would not be subject to the Pope and the Constitution would come first.  This seemed fine back in 1960 when abortion was illegal, along with homosexual acts and in a number of states, contraception.  There seemed no difficulty for a Catholic.  But Kennedy's speech has been disastrous ever since.  It has encouraged a whole generation of so called Catholic politicians, including his brother, to adopt "personally opposed but publicly supporting" positions on abortion and homosexual marriage.  And it has imbedded the notion that Catholics can only be trusted in office if they behave like protestants, that is, if they behave as if they are part of a national church and not a supranational church.  So Jeffrey is correct.

Of course he's dead wrong in the conclusion that the Act should not be changed - in a democracy everyone, including a monarch if you have one, should have religious freedom.  The problem with an unelected monarch is you don't get to chose whether or not you like the consequences of their religion.  Jeffrey wouldn't like a Catholic head of state - I might if it was the right sort - but neither gets that choice.