THE CHURCH AND MARRIAGE

New Zealand Tablet, 22 June 1911, Page 1143

THE CHURCH AND MARRIAGE

‘During the past weeks in the public press 1 and elsewhere,’ said his Eminence Cardinal Moran at Leichhardt on Sunday, June 4, ‘ a great deal has been written and said about the dealings of Holy Church in the matter of the Sacrament of marriage. A storm has been stirred up. and many seem to think that the Catholic Church should conform her marriage discipline with the law of the land in which we live. Holy Church respects the law of the land, and commands the faithful to do so; but when she deals with the Sacraments she is carrying out the law of God, and could not fashion it in accordance with the mere dictates of human wisdom or the Parliament of the day. The decrees of the Church do not change, as do those of human agencies. There are some other Churches which are limited to the State in which they have their origin* and, of course, they do not recognise marriage as a Sacrament if it is not in conformity with the law of the land. The Catholic Church , is a Church for the whole . world. - She is not confined to Great Britain, to Australia, or any other country. In Germany, Russia, the United States, China, Africa— wherever you go—you find her flourishing, and the very same discipline extends throughout the world. Take Russia, for example—the discipline of the Church in regard to marriage cannot be conformed to the laws of the State. In Turkey it would be strange if she fol-

lowed out the civil laws as regards the Sacrament.: And it is the same even in Catholic countries. Austria, the most-Catholic country, enacts that no marriage shall be valid unless the husband has a certain amount of property, sufficient to support his wife. But Holy Church does not recognise this enactment. . She cannot fashion her precepts to the changing laws of any country., Being a universal Church, she imposes her discipline to bring the blessings of the Sacrament of Matrimony to all faithful souls. ‘I mention these facts merely to put you on your guard, against statements, which so many people are fond of repeating at the present time, that Catholics are opposed to the Government. No such thing. The whole desire of the Church is to strengthen and consolidate the foundation on which the greatness of Australia rests— the Christian home, sanctified by the Sacrament of marriage, which will give vigor and virtue to the future of this country. Without the Sacrament of marriage we will see that terrible cancer of. divorce spreading amongst us, as it has in other lands. I was delighted the other day to learn that in the Philippine Islands, which are peopled by fine Catholics, when the American Government endeavored to introduce divorce the whole of the inhabitants rose up with a voice of united protest. They did not want divorce, they said, as divorce was contrary to the teachings of the Church, and they would have none of it. In Ireland, where the spirit of religion lives and flourishes, as it did in the day's of St. Patrick, there is no divorce court. Ireland is the only country in Europe which has no such court. Whilst in the United States, outside of the Catholic congregations, one family in every 14 bears the stain of divorce, in Ireland the proportion is only one family in 4450, which means that there is no divorce at all. ‘No matter what the law of the land may enact, Holy Church remains inflexible as regards the sanctity of the Sacrament 'of marriage, which is. the foundation of the Christian home, bringing peace and happiness on earth, and preparing man for eternal life before the altar of God.'