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Closed Legal protection for the title 'reverend'

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Archbishop Justin Welby has stated that the Church of England is powerless to stop convicted criminals, such as Guy Bennett, from using the title 'Reverend'.

At present there is no legal protection for the term reverend, and any person may give themselves that title.

My petition is that the government empower the Church of England, and other recognized religious denominations, the power to both bestow and remove the title reverend.

The benefit of this would be that impersonating a priest or vicar would become riskier due to penalties imposed and those convicted of serious crime such as child abuse would no longer be able to use the title.

The case has been brought to attention in the following BBC new story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-30779029

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    If this petition gets 10,000 signatures, government will respond to it.

    If this petition gets 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

    This petition will stay open until 30 March 2015.