NE TEMERE DECREE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1017, 13 July 1911, Page 3

NE TEMERE DECREE.

OVERTURE TO PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY. The Papal Ne Temere decree was discussed iu committee at the Wellington Presbytery this week when Rev. Dr. Gibb gave notice of motion of an overture to the General Assembly with regard to the decree. The notice was in the following terms ; “ Whereas the Ne Temere decree of the Roman Catholic Church demands for the validation of a marriage between Roman Catholic and non-Roman Catholic subjects of this Dominion the presence of a Roman Catholic priest, and in the absence of a priest decla res this marriage null and void, and whereas the decree thereby unwarrantably interferes with the proper liberty of certain subjects of this Dominion, who are declared incapable of contracting a valid marriage without the presence of a Roman Catholic priest; and whereas the decree exalts the variable regulations of a particular ecclesiastical discipline to a level with the unchangeable moral law ot God in determining what marriages are valid ; and whereas this decree is contrary to public policy, and is inimical to domestic peace and social welfare.

(a) “In that it subjects nonRoman Catholic parties to marriage contracts sanctioned by civil law, and against which no Divine law(is, or can be alleged, along with their Roman Catholic partners in the marriages, to the scandalous imputation of concubinage, so that their children are not born in true wedlock, and (b) “That it invites Roman Catholic partners in such marriages to repudiate the obligations resting on lawfully married persons: it is hereby overtured to the General Assembly, meeting in Dunedin in November next, to take the premises into due consideration, and to issue a manifesto setting forth the mind of the Church regarding this intolerable invasion of the civil and religious rights of the people ; and to take such further steps, if possible in co-operation with other Churches, as shall expose the machinations of the Papacy, and put the people on their guard against the subtle encroachment of the Roman Church on the liberties of the nation.”