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Show Protestant Episcopal Expediency. f ANY CATHOLICS are grieved over iVl thf act'on- or rather lack of action, ac-tion, of the Episcopal congress jn session at San Francisco in relation to the proposed change of the canons of marriage and divorce. Not because it is considered any concern of Catholics what other churches may do in reconstructing recon-structing their canons and discipline, but because Catholics in common with all good men and women who nelieve i hat the stability of the state rests upon the virtue of the citizen, roped that the Protestant Episcopal church would take a firm stand against the divorce evil and go on record as an a'ly of the oldest church in preserving the sanctity of the sacrament of rnatri- .mony. But it was not to be. After several days discussion, after one house of the congress had adopted a canon in line with the views of the rigid churchmen who persistently urged the prohibition of the remarriage of divorced di-vorced persons by Episcopal clergy nen, the other house rejected it, and the whole matter was allowed to stand practically as it stood before. Such legislation leaves the Catholic Church alone to maintain and defend God's law in its application to Christian Chris-tian marriage. No power on earth can unbend it. Its visible head upon earth will suffer imprisonment, as did Pius VII through Napoleon Bonaparte, rather than disobey the law laid down by Christ that "what God .has joined together, let no man put asunder." Rt. Rev. Leigh ton Coleman, bishop of Delaware, is a churchman of strong convictions and comes nearer to the Catholic idea of the marriage sacra ment than others who expressed themselves them-selves through newspaper interviews. He said: "So long as I have given any thought to the subject of marriage and divorce I have been resolutely opposed to any allowance on the part of the Church of the remarriage, so-called, of any person per-son divorced, whether supposed tc be innocent or guilty. It has always seemed to me the course most consistent consist-ent with God's word and the irind of the Catholic Church, (Protestant Episcopal) Epis-copal) as it is also the only course, in my judgment, for the prevention of the cr-llusoi? and condoning of crimes in this respect, with which every postor is too sadly informed. It becomes the church to give to the world :ts unequivocal unequi-vocal judgment on a matter so important, import-ant, so affecting every foundation of society, and so entirely religions in its characted: for holy matrimony is a religious re-ligious rite and not a merely civil con- j tract." ! "Words well spoken and devoid of ex-p(diency ex-p(diency or equivocation. Some day the bishop who uttered them, feeling that a church which would sacrifice principle rather than tempt loss of membership through adoption , of a canon bearing "too hard" on divorced persons, may seek and gain admittance to the true fold. That it was the waiting policy and the fear of secession that ultimately settled legislation in the Episcopal congress con-gress is perhaps best disclosed in the interview with Bishop Leonard of Salt Lake. His views undoubtedly obtained among the majority of delegates. Said Bishop Leonard: "I do not favor the proposition to forbid 'all remarriage. I stand on the old canon; the old canon suits me just as it stands. I do not think it is a . - - - ., . I ..... good plan for tis to try to go too fast. I am conservative on that proposition. I do not think I could define my position posi-tion any better than that. The old canon is not all that I could want, but . still it expresses my position very fully, better than anything that has been proposed. I am glad to see that the whole country is interested and is moving along that line; but I would rather the rest of the country should catch up with us than that we should go still further ahead of the other people. I would rather that they should try to come up to our level than that we should go so for beyond. And. of course, there are a large number of people who are not Christians at all who are not going to be influenced particularly by what we say or think." So we say again that Catholics are grieved, because the united opposition of the churches to remarriage would go far to remove the divorce evil an evil that threatens the destruction of society so-ciety and ultimately the state. |