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Show A CASE IN QUESTION. j How the Catholic World Vjews Unlawful Un-lawful Marriage. v-s An officer stationed at Jefferson barracks bar-racks married his brother's sister-in-law last week, says the Western Watchman. Watch-man. There was nothing wrong about that. But she was a divorced woman, her husband having proved to a court of justice that she had not conducted herself her-self as became a wife. This was bad. A young army officer should not find it difficult to win a girl against whom no fault could be urged. But the young officer is represented as a Catholic; which makes the case look very bad indeed. in-deed. A Catholic cannot marry a divorcee. di-vorcee. Acknowledging himself a Catholic Cath-olic and knowing that the church would not sanction his marriage he sought the services of a Protestant minister to tie the knot. In this he incurred the penalty penal-ty of excommunication. That closes the chapter of the young man's Catholicity. Catholi-city. He stands now before the Catholic Cath-olic world as a man without the courage cour-age of his convictions, which speaks very poorly for an officer of our army. But we are informed that the young man was never very much of a Catholic; Cath-olic; if he ever was one in more than name. His family can scarcely be called Catholic. His father was not a Catholic; and his mother was a Catholic Cath-olic before she married. The children were not brought up to the practice of their religion. They never saw any Catholicity in their home, and they never nev-er went to church. People who never go to the sacraments, stay away from mass 'habitually and eat meat every Friday can scarcely be called Catholics. If they bear the name it is only to scandalize scan-dalize those who bear it worthily. But the woman he married should have required the young man to formally for-mally renounce his religion before giving giv-ing him her second hand. For him to marry her as Catholic was to make her his mistress. There was a time when Catholics could validly marry outside the church, but that time is nassed For over a year every Catholic who marries before any other than a priest is not married; his partner becomes a mistress and the children, if any are born to them, are declared illegitimate. The laws of the little state of Missouri may consider him married, but the whole Catholic world pronounces the union a concubinage. When there was talk of Aliss Elkins marrying the Duke of Abruzzi the European papers said there would be no difficulty in her becoming be-coming the Alorganatie wife of the duke. She would not be his wife le-fore le-fore Italian law, but would be acknowledged ac-knowledged as a leg.timate mate. She scorned the proposition. If she married mar-ried the Italian she would be his wife according to all the laws, or not his wife at all. When a Protestant marries a Catholic outside his church she consents con-sents to pose before the whole Catholic world as a mistress, and only a mistress. mis-tress. But when there is a law of God barring the union, as there was in the present case, there is no possible chance of rehabilitation, without absolute separation. sep-aration. The mistress, like Agar, must be put out with her children. Those children cannot be denied bantism; but they must be recorded as illegitimate. A man posing as a Catholic; who asks a woman to marry him before a squire or a Protestant minister, simply insults her; he wishes her to become his concubine. con-cubine. To marry him and preserve her self-respect, it would be necessary for him to publicly renounce his Catholicity. Catholi-city. We spoke some time ago of the need of a law empowering a man who obtains ob-tains a divorce from his wife to name two or three men whom it would be ever illegal for her to marry. In like manner of the wife who gets a divorce from a husband. If there were such a law in this state it is more than likely that we would not have had this latest scandal to record. We must not be deceived by the glamor of old Catholic names. Fifty years ago the number of prominent Catholics in this city was very small, and mostly confined to the descendants of the early French settlers. They were a very decent 'et of people, especially the women. But the last two male generations gen-erations of these early French have turned out very badly. With few exceptions ex-ceptions they are a worthless, listless, thriftless crew. They succeed in nothing. noth-ing. The few who have done well are a credit to their religion and nationality; but those who have nothing left but their French and Catholic name have not manhood enough to get into the penitentiary, nor sense enough to keep out of hell. We hear of them in such connection as is presented in this instance, in-stance, but nowhere and never under circumstances that call for a man. |