In an interview with The Times, published today, Lord Carey discloses that he and his wife Eileen met Mrs Parker Bowles at the house of their son, Andrew, in Peckham, southeast London.

Lord Carey, who was concerned that Mrs Parker Bowles was being portrayed as an “ogre” by the media, says: “My chauffeur dropped me at the end of the road and Eileen (his wife) and I went to Andrew’s house and had coffee with her. We met several times.”

Lord Carey says the Prince of Wales was more “sinned against than sinning” by the late Diana, Princess of Wales. He says it is time that the heir to the throne made an honest woman of the person he has loved since a young man.

The former Archbishop makes his plea after Mark Bolland, the PR executive who was formerly the Prince’s deputy private secretary, said that the Prince had missed his chance of marrying Mrs Parker Bowles. Lord Carey, whose autobiography will be serialised in The Times from tomorrow, says: “He is the heir to the throne and he loves her. The natural thing is that they should get married.”

Acknowledging that the couple’s love for each other probably endured even through their marriages to other people, Lord Carey says: “That’s part of the fallibility of the human condition.”

The Church of England has never made an official pronouncement either for or against a future marriage, although some bishops are understood to believe that the future Supreme Governor of the Church of England should marry rather than continue his present arrangement.

Until recently the Church’s marriage rules, which forbade the remarriage in church of a divorcee with a partner still living, would have ruled them out because Mrs Parker Bowles’s former husband, Andrew, is still alive.

When the Church altered its rules last year to allow divorcees to remarry in church in some circumstances, it was widely assumed that one of the reasons behind the movewas to facilitate a marriage between the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles, although this was always denied.

The new rules are intended to apply in cases where neither party was instrumental in the break-up of their partner’s former marriage and Lord Carey admits that the Prince of Wales and Mrs Parker Bowles “would come under that general rule” but continues: “I don’t think it’s a no-go area.”

Lord Carey adds that the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, which prevents Royals marrying without the monarch’s consent, would also have to be “looked at”.

Mr Bolland said last night: “I thought there was a moment a year or so after the Queen Mother died when all the public, media and political opinion indicators were in the right place for a marriage to be understood and accepted.

“I think that moment has passed for now, but it will no doubt return.”

Lord Carey also makes it clear that he remains unrepentant about his recent criticism of Muslim leaders who failed unequivocally to condemn suicide bombers.

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