NE TEMERE DECREE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1519, 15 August 1912, Page 5

NE TEMERE DECREE.

'A PETITION TO PARLIAMENT. Tho Christcliurch Presbytery has petitioned Parliament asking that such steps may bo taken as aro necessary to tho civil rights and social interests of thoso adversely affected by the No T\sniere decree. It is represented that this decree declares certain marriages honourably entered into aittd legally contracted to bo no marriage at all, and tho contracting pa-r----tios aro bold up to reprobation as living in sin. Tho petition enumerates as nonRoman Catholic persons affected by this decree , tho following, who, in tho exercise of their civil and religions freedom, havo their marriages soloinnised by an officiating minister other than a Roman Catholic priest:—(l) The non-Roman Catholic person in a "mixed marriage." who in no way recognises the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church; (2) persons who have deliberately loft the Roman Catholic Church, and who now in no way recognise its jurisdiction; (3). persons who as unconscious babes were baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, but who now in no way recognise its jurisdiction. Petitiftnevs contend that the decree runs counter to the New Zealand Marriage Act by commanding Roman Catholics in certain circumstances,to dispense with tho certificate e-f the registrar and Uio presence of an officiating minister, and to solemnise their own marriage. Section VIII of the decree, the petition states, is as follows :— "Should it happen that in any district the parish priest, or the ordinary'of the place, or a. priest delegated bv them, before whom marriage can be celebrated, is not to be had, and that this condition N of things has listed for a month, marriage may bo validly and licitly entered upon by tho formal declaration of consent mado bv the spouses, in the presence of witnesses.' , Tho petition is signed, in accordance with a resolution of tln> Presbytery, on August 2, 1912, bv John Mackenzie {Moderator) niid Charles Murray (clerk).