MIXED MARRIAGES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1166, 29 June 1911, Page 7

MIXED MARRIAGES.

—<) . A CHURCH OP ENGLAND PROTEST. Br TclesniDh—Press Association-Oopyrlorht Melbourne, June 28. A Pastoral Letter from the authorities ■.of the Anglican Church, dealing with the Ttoinrm Catholic "Ne temere"- deoreo agpinst mixed marriages between Catholics, and Protestants, will be read in all theVnglican Churches on . Sunday. In \protesting against the decree, the letter 'states that it is contrary to publio policy, and will tend to encourage wife desertioij and even bigamy. \v UNITED<\PROTESANT MANIFESTO. A joint manifesto was recently agreed to by, and officially signed on behalf of, the non-Roman Catholic Churches of Victoria. The denominations represented are tho ' Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, Lutherans, Welsh Calvinists, Society of Friends, and tho Salvation Army. Exception was taken to the decreo on the following grounds:— 1. Tho decree presumes to declare not valid marriages between Roman Cutholic and non-Roman Catholic subjects of this State—celebrated in accordance with civil law and against which no Divine law, whether natural or positive and revealed, is or can be alleged—if only a specified Roman Catholic priest be not present as a. witness to tho mutual consent of, the parties. 2. The decree thereby unwarrantably interferes with the proper liberty of certain subjects of this State, who arc declared incapablo of contracting a valid marriage without the presence of a Roman Catholic priest. 3. The decreo interferes also in .the matter of what is sufficient evidence for a marriage contract, which is properly a civil matter, to he provided for % ci.vil law.

1. The decree • exalts the variable regulations of a particular ecclesiastical discipline to a level with the unchangeable moral law of God in determining what marriages are valid.

5. Such a decree is contrary to public policy, and inimical to domestic peace and social welfare (a) in that it subjects non-Roman Catholic parties to marriage contracts sanctioned by civil law, and against which lio Divine law is, or can be alleged, along with their Roman Catholic partners in the marriages, to the grievous' imputation on tho part of the Roman Catholic Church of being not truly marvied, and, consequently, living in concubinage, so that their children are not born in true wedlock and (b) in that it incites Roman Catholic partners in such marriages to repudiate tho obligations resting on lawfully married persons.