MIXED MARRIAGES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 15, 12 July 1911, Page 5

MIXED MARRIAGES

"THE MACHINATIONS OF PAPACY." '

PRESBYTERIANS TAKE ACTION.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Nigtt. t ®he papal "ne temere" decree was discussed in committee at the Wellington Presbytery to-day, when the 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 ■ temere' decree of the Reman Catholic churches demands for the validation of marriage between Roman CatAolfc and' non-Catholic subjects of this Dominion, the presence of Roman Catholic priest, and, in the absence of the priest, declares 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 law of God in determining . what marriages are valid; and, whereas this decree is contrary to public policy and inimical to domestic peace and social warfare—(a) in that it subjects lion-Roman 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 marriages to the scandalous imputation of concubinage, so that their children are not born in true wedlock; and (b) that it invites Romas Catholic partners in such marriages to repudiate the obligations resting on lawfully married persons—it is thereby overturcd 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 civil and religious Tights of the people, and to take such further steps, if possible, in co-operation with other cliuiflip-i. as shall expose the machinations of papacy and put the people on their guard against the* subtle encroachment of the Roman Catholic Church on the liberties of the nation."