NE TEMERE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10292, 29 May 1919, Page 2

NE TEMERE

REPLIES TO PROTESTS IN VIOTOIUA. -

A reply by ■ the Victorian Premier to a deputation from tffe Protestant Federation regarding the Ne Temere decree sets out trio attitude of tna stale Ministry towards trie subject. Mr Lawson eaidt — : ‘Trie Crown law officers have mime exhaustive inquiries into the mutter 6i the Ne Temere decree, and; have View-; ed; y trie question irom ail standpoints.* i'he result of these inquiries shortly put is that there-is no inli'ingcmeni of' State laws. In any special instances in which such an infringement may be committed the onus of applying for any civil remedy must he witn the persons interested. The Government would have no legal status m the matter. . The question of amending the law to deal with that '.subject, is a very , delicate anddifficult cue. In modern times it has been an accepted prinosple in English-speaking countries at least that the Legislature will not concern itself with matters of religious belief. Any interioreuce by Parliament with religious matters would be resisted eyen by persons wffo have no sympathy witli those who believe in the principles of the Ne Temere decree. it is not intended to intrbduce legislation dealing .with. this, question.” . ~ . 'At St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Melbourne) Archbishop Mannis said the Ne Temere * decree was expressly intended for Catholics. If tho Pope had his wish that decree would never, touch a Protestant, for, like the heads of the Protestant bodies, the Pope was altogether opposed to mixed marriages, and the Ne Temere decree never affected a Protestant unless in tho case of a mixed marriage. It regulated all marriages, however,, between Catholics. If two Catholics were to comply with all the requirements of the civil law in a registry office, their marriage, though valid before the civil law, would bo invalid before God and His Church, and if those Catholics wished later on to receive the sacrament of marriage, and to live as practical Catholics, they must renew their marriage consent in the usual Catholic form before the local parish priest and witnesses. It was evidently very wide of the truth to say that the.Ne Temere decree was aimed at Protestmts. Perhaps the Pope hoped tn. , the decree would discourage mixed marriages, to which they themselves were altogether opposed.: However powerless they might be to prevent them, it was a gross misuse of words to say the Church defied the law.