BEQUESTS FOR MASSES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 15, 12 April 1906, Page 20

BEQUESTS FOR MASSES

IMPORTANT DECISION

On Monday, February 5, in the Dublin Court of 'Appeal, which consisted of the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Baron, and Lord Justice Fitzgibbon, judgment was given in the case of O\Hanlon v. his Eminence Cardinal Logue. The case was an appeal by his Eminence against an order of the Master of tne Rolls declaring that a gift under (the will of the late Eliza Ellen M'Loughlin,, of Rortadown, for Masses for the repose of the souls of her husband, her children, -and herself was void because there was no direction that the Masses should be celebrated in public. The Lord Chancellor held that the belcfuest was valid. The Lord Chief Baron concurred, and delivered a learned judgment, in -which he 'hejld that the pious -character of the gift was what really constituted a charity. He was satisfied that the celebration of the Masses,- whether in private or in public, was a charitable act. Lord Justice FitzgibSbon, who agreed with his colleagues, said tfiat his exouse for adding anything to the iudgment delivered by the Chief Baron was that he believed a principle vital to religious eq/uality beyond any denominational interest to be involved in the decision of the court.