PRIESTS' IMMUNITY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15810, 28 December 1911, Page 7

PRIESTS' IMMUNITY.

A BLOW TO HOME RULE. United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 26.

The Dublin correspondent of the “Times” states, in reference to the Papal decree prohibiting Roman Catholics from suing their clergy in the State courts, that the transgression involves the sentence of excommunication as already pronounced, and adds that absolution from excommunication is specially reserved to tho Pope. The decree similarly penalises those who enact laws or decrees against the liberty and rights of the church ; thus every member of Parliament legislating, and every executive officer promulgating, such laws, comes within tho scope of the decree. The Nationalists already realise the possibilities of the decree as an instrument of battle against Home Rule. The correspondent adds that for the second time within a few years the church liss dealt the cause of separation a heavy blow.