THE 'NE TEMERE' DECREE

New Zealand Tablet, 23 November 1911, Page 2356

THE 'NE TEMERE' DECREE

DISCUSSION AT THE PRESBYTERIAN ASSEMBLY The following is the substance of the proceedings at the Presbyterian Assembly in connection with the Ne Temere discussion on Thursday last. Our report is abridged from that of the Otago Daily Times of Friday. At Thursday night's meeting of the Presbyterian Assembly, the Rev. R. Wood moved the following motion standing in his name: ' The Assembly having considered the Ne Temere decree which has been promulgated in this Dominion in its historical setting and practical working, and while recognising the right of every branch of the Christian Church to formulate its own terms of communion and to exercise ecclesiastical discipline upon its members in accordance therewith, but inasmuch as the application of this decree in every case of a mixed marriage affects a party who is not under the jurisdiction of the Church of Rome, and traverses the law of the land and the law of all nonRoman Catholic Churches by declaring invalid a marriage duly solemnised according to those laws, and inasmuch as this decree has been so applied as to disturb the peace of families and break up homes and seriously affect the social standing of members of homes, the Assembly call upon the Government to devise some means for the protection of the social interests and the civil rights of all parties affected by this decree, and in view of the grave risks to domestic happiness and religious well-being involved in mixed marriages, they exhort their faithful people to avoid contracting marriages of that nature and the Assembly further directs that a copy of this deliverance be sent by the clerk of Assembly to the Government through Sir Joseph Ward.' In moving the motion, Mr. Wood said that every mpmentof time was precious. For reasons of policy

the Church of Rome did not make the decree universal, and the fruits of this were to be seen in the exempted countries to-day. Impediments had been created which could be dissolved, and the consequence was that in Italy the reaction was so great that even the Pope himself could not solemnise a marriage there. Continuing, the speaker referred to what he called the notorious McCann case. He knew the Irish Protestant minister who had celebrated this marriage.' The truthfulness of the story had never been shaken. At Edinburgh the Jesuit champions of the Ne Tenure decree were asked to challenge the statements made in the McCann case, and failed to do so. The decree professed to be universal in its scope, and yet it was not universal. In Germany the decree was not promulgated. A marriage solemnised in Dunedin which was not in accordance with the law now laid down by the Catholic Church was declared to be no marriage at all, and the people so married were declared to be living in a state of sin, and the children illegitimate. In Berlin, Hamburg, and Potsdam, however, such a marriage is declared to be a legal one. That was the way the decree worked. The German Ambassador in Italy protested against the Pope’s Encyclical so emphatically on behalf of his Government that it was withdrawn so far as Germany was concerned. Previous to Easter Sunday, 1908, a marriage was declared to be valid, but on the following Monday the same marriage was declared to be a shame and a scandal. If in a locality where a priest was not obtainable a couple wished to be married, they could be so married by making a declaration before two witnesses, notwithstanding that a Protestant minister might be resident in,the locality. He contended that the decree affected the social life and the social conditions, and that the liberty of their fellow-citizens should bo protected (applause). The decree showed itself as a weapon of conversion by coercion. The speaker said he knew of cases in Canterbury, and also locally, where the decree had had this effect. However, where this coercion failed a dispensation might be granted and the wedding allowed to proceed. The decree called for an emphatic protest from the Christian Churches, and the protest took the form of his motion (applause).

Dr. Gibb seconded the motion. He said he would like to express his personal sense of obligaton to Mr. Wood for the admirable service he had been rendering to the cause of sound Protestantism. Mr. Wood had bearded Bishop Cleary, who had at times tried to ride rough-shed over the Outlook, and had proved quite the bishop's match, and he (the speaker) thought more than his match. It made the blood of a British man boil to see that Germany could be free of the yoke that they attempted to impose upon freeborn Englishmen. Kaiser Wilhelm and his warriors would have none of it. Were they to submit to this insult? He said they were not. He hoped that co-operative action would be taken by all the Churches to say they would not have the Pope imposing his dominion over them. He would like to say that Rome had proved herself dishonest in connection with the promulgation of the decree. He was not sure that they were wise in holding their peace while Rome was quiet, because Rome did not always work in the open—they knew that she worked in' the dark. He believed at the present time the Catholic Church was trying to bring England again under the Dominion of Rome. ' But she is not going to do it,' continued the speaker. They had no option, in view of the sentiments of the Roman Catholic Church, but to meet them face to face and to declare that they would have none of its dominion. They had not only themselves to consider but their children and their children's children, and they should see that they never came under the servitude of Rome. The motion was carried unanimously.