THE PROTESTANT POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 205, 28 August 1918, Page 3

THE PROTESTANT POLITICAL ASSOCIATION.

THE WAR AGAINST WOMEN". ni.—FCRTHTSR PHASES: ORANGE "XE TEMERES." CHALLENGE TO PRuSECUTE: £500 FOR THE RED CROSS. OPEN* LETTER No. 11. To the REV. HOWARD ELLIOTT, the I if! AND ORANGK LODGE, and the DOMINION EXECUTIVE OF THE POUT] ( !A I . A SSOCIATI ON which derives its ORIGIN, FINANCE, AIMS. AND POLICY FROM THE GRAND ORANGK LODGE. Rev. Sir, Sirs,—You are still try*ing to lure honourable and unsuspecting people into the mistaken belief that your "GRAND" aim is to promote "MORAL WELL-BEING " and "EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL." Yet you most discreetly DECLINED PUBLIC CHALLENGES ( .£1000) = to test this aheiircl fiction, of which more will he heard in duo course. It was not as a "MORAL" , organisation

—but as a "BANEFUL AND UNCHRISTIAN," DISLOYAL AND TERRORIST ..ne. and as a MENACE TO THE EMPlßE—that ORANGEISM WAS TWICE SUPPRESSED BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT—in 1825 and IS3O.

WAR AGAINST WOMEN. II was not for MORAL UPLIFT and EXAMPLE that your Lodge-Association did what follows: (I) You officially "pushed" disgusting Orange "literature," which the State condemned. (_) You officially concocted loathsome allegations against DEAD and (unnamed) living WOMEN. (3) To ESCAPE PUBLIC EXPOSURE and moner loss, you DECLINED CHALLENGES ( £1000) to afford us an opportunity of disproving I AND FORCING YOU TO DISPROVE) your official calumnies IN OPEN COURT. (4) So little manly shame and "REGRET" have you for these FABRICATIONS, that. TO THI.-" HOUR, you are OFFICIALLY CIRCULATING the further falsehoods, namely, that your fabrications are "FACTS." and that you nre ready to "PROVE"' them "IF the OCCASION ARISES." NO WOMAN IS SAFE. NO GOOD WOMAN'S GOOD NAME IS WORTH A MOMENT'S PURCHASE while these typically Orange methods of defamation arc allowed free scope. "NE TEWIERE " DECREE. • To draw od public attention from these and other PUBLIC ENPOSURES, your EMINENTLY "LAW-ABIDING" IRISH SECRET SOCIETY declares— with a fine show of shocked virtue — that the Catholic "Ne Temerc" decree on marriage is a defiance, "setting aside," and breach of the law of New Zealand. And yon (or officials of yours) back up "this LEGAL ABSURDITY by a sham "Proposition" and a bogus "anathema" falsely attributed to the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX. PROSZCUT*. I I hereby OFFER to pay the reasonable FEE of any LAWYER whom you may CXINSULT'as to whether a PROSECUTION lies for this alleged BREACH OF NEW ZEALAND LAW. I am, furthermore, authorised to make the two followins statements: 11) BISHOP CLEARY is the responsible and OFFICIAL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE "NE TEMERE" DECREE in the Province of Auckland. 12) If —with a view to PROSECUTING BISHOP CLEARY for a breach of New Zealand law (as alleged) —you desire EVT PENCE OF THE FACT of his administration of the "Ne Temere" decree. THAT EVIDENCE WILL BE SUPPLIED at once on application. The sum of

FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS (contributed by friends) will be paid to the RED CROSS FUNDS, as a tine or pcnaltv, on the following conditions: — 1. PROSECUTE BISHOP CLEARY, and secure his CONVICTION for a breach of New Zealand law arising out of his administration of the "No Temere" decree. •2. Find ANYWHERE in the Syllabus of Pope Pius IX. tbe following proposition (described above as "sham"): — "Let him be anathema, who says that a civil marriage is true matrimony, or that a marriage is not nil thar is not saeramentallv contracted." This CHALLENGE is open till 10 a.m. on September •">, 1018. WHAT "NE TEMERE " IS. For the benefit of fair-minded readers of this Open Letter. I make the following summary statement regarding the "Ne Temere" decree: — 1. Like all other religious bodies, societies, clubs, etc.. the Catholic Church has her own rules for membership and the enjoyment of the privilege's of membership. 2. The "Ne Temere" decree is a part of a collection of the rules or laws of Unchurch regarding the marriage of Caiholies among themselves, and of Catholics with persons outside their faith (commonly called "mixed" marriages). That whole body of rules or laws is so linked up together that NO PART OF IT CAN BE PROPERLY UNT-ERSTOOD WITHOUT THE REST. :!. That body of Church laws (including the "Ne Temere'') deals with the marriage contract ON ITS SPIRIT!"..I. SIDE ONLY,

AS A SACRAMENT of the Church. To Catholics, tlie marriage of Catholics is a Sacrament, as— among most Protestants—Baptism and the Lord's Supper are Sacraments or special means of grace. (b) No marriage of Catholics is canon'teally valid, in the eyes of the Church, unless it is a Sacrament. The Church regulates tlie conditions for a valid Sacrament of marriage, as other religious bodies regulate the conditions for a valid Baptism or Lord's Supper. (c) The ministers of the Catholic Sacrament of marriage are THE CONTRACTING PARTIES themselves. And the Catholic Church (like other Churches) determines THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH HER MTN--ISTERS SHALL VALIDLY ANT) TJCITLY ENERGISE THEIR MINISTRY. THE CIVIL LAW. 4. The "Ne Temere*' and other Catholic Church laws view marriage SOLELY AS A SPIRITUAL AND SACRAMENTAL CONTRACT. New Zealand's civil law takes ABSOLUTELY NO COGNISANCE OF THIS VIEW OF MARRIAGE. It deals with marriage as a PURELY SECULAR AND MATERIAL CONTRACT for purely secular and material purposes—chiefly in regard to inheritance. Catholics admit the LEGAL CONTRACT; they admit the LEGAJ., LEGITIMACY: they admit tho LEGAL RIGHT OF INHERITANCE and the other CIVIL EFFECTS of the legal contract. And they admit all this even in

the happily rare cases where the marriage of a. Catholic is NOT acknowledged as sacramental or canonically valid in the eyes of the Church. " MIXED." 5. For cause, our Church legislation permits the marriage of Catholics to ])ersons of other faiths. And such marriages are good and binding till death. Provision is also made in our Church rules and laws for several means of VALIDATING BOTH CATHOLIC AND "MIXED"' UNIONS which, in the eyes of the Church, are not sacramental or canonically valid. 0. The "N"e Temcrc" decree expressly states that it does not apply to "nonCatholics, whether baptised or un.aptised." It is for persons baptised in our Church, and is our private and domestic concern. 'this was oflieially admitted h_- deliberative bodies of other faiths, in this -Dominion, in 1312, in words now before mc. The Church is. herein, EXERCISING RIGHT'S CLAIMED AND EXERCISED, to this hour. BY OTHER RELIC lOCS DENOMINATIONS, both Jewish and Christian. 7. Neither tlie "N"c Temere" decree nor Catholic theology attaches a stigma of formal wrong-doing to the NON-CATHOLIC PARTY in a marriage with a Catholic, in those happily rare cases in which such marriage is NOT sacramental, and. therefore, not canonically valid in the eyes of the Church. In these oases the nonCatholic party is assumed to be in good faith guiltless, and conscientious!v content with the CIVIL CONTRACT and its civil effects. THE CATHOLIC PARTY ALONE VIOLATES THK LAW OF Hit - CHCRCH. AND IS ALONE GUILTY in the eyes of the Church. ANOTHER CHALLENGE A"ill appear shortly, dealing with the Orange Lodge's own fierce "Ne Te.meres" and' other and uglier phases of its long WAR AGAINST CHRISTIAN WOMEN and Christian marriage. JOHN BRENNAN, Late Chaplain N.Z. Expeditionary Forces, Administrator St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland. Postscript.—The Catholic penny catachism deals with marriage ONLY as a Sacrament, not at all with its civil effects or legal aspects. The penny catechism 16 NOT a manual of Church law. Jt is not even a method of religious instruction, but A GUIDE TO THE TEACHER as to the order in which he shall TEACH AND EXPLAIN its very highly summarised contents. —J.B,