MARLBOROUGH DIVORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 13

MARLBOROUGH DIVORCE

PAPAL DECREE OF ANNULMENT. EXPLANATION OF REASONS. (Pres» Association —By telegraph—Copyright) ROME, November 19. (Received Nov. 19, at 5.5 p.m.) The prelate of the Sacred Reta made a statement as follows concerning the annulment by the Pope of the Duke of Marlborough’s marriage: “The judgment was based on incontestable evidence without reference to the social position of the interested parties or the judgment of outsiders. Insinuations are often made in these matters that the church, on the pretext of annulling marriages, really grants divorces by roundabout ways. There is no need to say that the church ihas absolutely never granted release from marital ties. The decrees of the Reta are simply annulments. The tribunal in cases like the present affirms that matrimony was null and void and that a real and true marriage never existed, and, therefore, no matrimonial ties have been broken, as they never existed from the beginning. There were 50 cases presented during 1925, and in only 10 were found elements making them the subject of annulment. In the Marlborough case there was incontestable proof that moral violence was used on the bride, who gave her assent under the influence of grave fear.”—-A. and N.Z., Cable.