MIXED MARRIAGES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1265, 21 October 1911, Page 10

MIXED MARRIAGES.

4 ■ "XE TEMEK-E" DECREE DISCUSSED. Al tho Wellington District. Mcthcdist Synod yc.-.lerday the Rev. L'. ,1. Coisum introduced a remit from tho September quarterly meeting on the subject, of the "No Teinere" dtcrce. Alter preamble, the remit ran:— "Whereas by tlio Papal decree, 'No Teinere,' issued on April 111, IMB, mixed marriages alter that" date not solemnised by a Catholic priest are declared to be invalid, thus overriding the law of tho British Empire', whereas, moreover, this over-riding is only a particular application c>f tiio canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, which declares that in legal conflicts between Hie civil and ecclesiastical powers, tho ccclcsiastical law must prevail. (Section 12 of Syllabus, J'ins IX). And whereas tho Church of Koine is always scheming to advance her own interests at the expense of others, and engineering public concerns for her own advancement, as, for example, on tho seventeenth of March last, when pr.rt of the military forces of the Government were marclied through tlio principal sa-ccts of Wellington in commemoration ot a flourish anniversary, thus particularly identifying tho State with one religious denomination, and constraining boys of Protectant families to do honour to "a Church of which their parents cordially disapprove, tho conference agrees to appoint a committor, and instructs them to 00-operato with other Protestant Churches and organisations in talcing such steps as may seem to them l>cst fitted to instruct tho" people in the truths of Protestantism, expose the fallacies of the Papacy, and put them on their guard against tlio subtle, but steady, encroachment of tho Tapal Church on the liberties of the nation." Mr. Crossum said that tho remit had been forwarded for remission to the conference. The idea was that there should be a commiti.ce set up by tho conference to act in conjunction with representatives of other churches so as to securo somo uniform action. The sul>stance of tho decre? was that in the case of mixed marriages—between Catholics and Protestants—unless those marriages were celebrated by a Catholic, in a Catholic Church, the parties to the marriage were not, in tho sight of God, married at all, but living in open sin. That had always been the law of the church for very many years, but it had not been in force until recently. It was now in force in many Catholic countries, but in Germany the people would not have tho decree, and it was not in force there in consequence. So, in Germany, mixed marriages were recognised as legal, and a few miles away —across the border —people similarly married were held to be living in sin. Tho position was ridiculous. A serious aspect was that tlie law of tho land docided what constituted a legal marriage. As Protestants they were just as opposed to mixed marriages as Catholics were—(hear, hear) —but they did not insult people by s:aj'ing that because they were not married by a Methodic minister they were not legally married. What the Catholic Church did concerning its own members was no concern of his, but, when tho Catholic Church slandered members of his church and other Protestant churches, he objected. (Hear, hear.) This was only one of tho insidious attempts of the Catholic Church aimed at the country. The Catholic Church was making its voice heard, and, as Protestant chnrchcs, they should not suffer that voice to ho heard alone, and (hey .should protest against this thing. The decree was already working great mischief by way of separating man and wife. In Canada a marriage had been declared null and void by a civil court because it was not solemnised by a Catholic priest. And when they saw this happen in a British Dominion, beneath tho British (lag, it was for them, "as" a Protestant people, in a Protestant. country, to riso in protest. The remit was adopted.