ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 61, 6 December 1926, Page 11

ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL

PASSED BY HOUSE OF COMMONS (Rec. December 4, 5.5 p.m.) ■ 1 London, December 4. The Roman Catholic Relief Bill, “a measure of justice to remove longstanding, trivial disabilities,” was passed by the House of Commons without division. The prohibitions thus removed, which are mostly of ancient origin, include exercising a Roman Catholic rite or ceremony outside a place of worship or private house, appearing in public in the habit of an Order, officiating as a priest in any place of worship with a bell steeple, keeping books on Roman Catholic ritual, giving property to an abbey or convent, making a trust for the benefit of a Roman Catholic Order, and entrance to monastic Orders in England. The Bill has yet to pass the House of Lords. Lord Halifax, leader of the English High Church party, says: "I am very pleased about it.”