MERELY ANNULLED

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12609, 20 November 1926, Page 5

MERELY ANNULLED

MARLBOROUGH’S MARRIAGE “CHURCH NEVER GRANTS DIVORCE” OFFICIAL EXPLANATION Australian and N.Z. Gable Aesneintion. (Received November 19, 5.5 p.m.) ROME, November 19. The prelate of the Sacred Rota has made the following statement as concerning the annulment of the Duke of Marlborough’s marriage by the Pope:— i “The judgment was based on Incontestable evidence, without reference to the social position of the interested parties, or to the judgment of outsiders. Insinuations are often made i;i those matters that the church, on the pretext of annulling marriages, really grants divorces by roundabout Ways. There is no need to say that the church absolutely never has grunted a release from marital ties. The decrees of the Rota are simply annulments. The tribunal, in cases like the present, affirms that matrimony is null and void, and that a real, true marriage never existed, and tliereiore no matrimonial ties have been broken, as they never existed from the beginning. “There were fifty cases presented during 1925, and in only ten were found elements making them subjects ■of annulment. In the Marlborough case there was incontestable proof that moral violence was used on the bride, who gave her assent under the influence of grave fear.”