THE MARRIAGE LAWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 June 1922, Page 5

THE MARRIAGE LAWS.

THE NE TEMERE DEGREE. “TREATED WITH CONTEMPT." ALLEGED BOAST OF PRIESTS. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received June 27, 10.15 pm. Sydney, June 27. The ne temere decree controversy has (been revived. Captain Chaplain Wilson, who has just returned, from a visit to New Zealand, addressing a gathering in the Lyceum Hall, stated that Mr. Massey had assured him that the ne temere decre; had been made inoperative in the Dominion, as the outcome of a recent amendment of the Marriage Act. Mr. Wilson added that Mr- Massey not only denied that the amendments of the Marriage Act were ‘being flouted by a section, but emphasised the point that anyone flouting them would be dealt with irrespective of creed or station.

Father Forrest, of the Sacred Heart Monastery, Kensington, in a letter to the Press replying to Mr. -Wilson, says: “I do now flatly and categorically deny this ridiculous assertion of Mr. Massey. A thousand enactments of any State Parliament cannot render inoperative a law that the Catholic Church imposes upon her members. The ne temere decree is still in full force in New Zealand.” Father Forrest declares a priest recently returned from New Zealand assured him that he personally broke the stupid New Zealand amendment of the Marriage Act, as did scores of other priestsFather Forrest adds that the priests of New Zealand “intend to treat this absurd law with supreme contempt and no one knows better than the Prime Minister that it is beyond his power to enforce it.”—AusN.Z. Gable Assn.