The English Catholic martyrs could have saved themselves the trouble and been open-minded

I do not know why but this makes me unutterably sad.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3851758.ece
[Someone named Peter whom I do not know] the Queen’s eldest grandson, will not have to give up his place in the succession to the throne when he marries next month after his fiancée [someone named Autumn whom I do not know] renounced her Roman Catholic faith. ...
[The mother-in-law-to-be] said that she did not think that there would be a problem with her daughter being a “foreigner”.
“I think attitudes to things like that have changed,” she said. “Autumn is a very serious and intelligent young woman. She may be young, but she knows the world. And he’s a great guy. Isn’t that what counts?”
No, being "foreign" matters not a whit, the British are very open-minded...
The only consolation -- but again, why am I in need of solace? why does this make me so forlorn? -- the only solace is, as a commentator on the Times site nails, "Does it matter which church one stays at at home from?"
I guess it's the clear evidence that for many people some rituals, those of the state wedding, of the formal renunciation, of all the trappings of a monarchy -- all these are seen as valuable, as worth preserving, as pointing to a reality outside of and greater than themselves -- but that the rituals that point to the greatest reality of all are so blithely, discarded, tossed into the trashcan.