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Show VATICAN AGAINST. DIVORCED WOMAN Would Not Permit Blue Sister to At-. At-. tend Princess Rospigliosi. Rome, July 9. A great sensation has . - been caused : hero by the action of the Vatican ' 'authorities towards the Princess Joseph Rospigliosi, Rospig-liosi, an American. Her husband is head of an ancient family of clerical nobility, and his brother is commandant of the papal noble guard. On Aug. 28, 1901, Prince Rospigliosi married here Mrs. Marie Jennings Reid Parkhurst of Washington, the divorced wife of Colonel Frederick H. Parkhurst of Bangor, Me. The ceremony was civil, and hence was not recognize1! by the Vatican. Princess Rospigliosi, who is now on the point of confinement, engaged an English Blue Sister as a nurse, and the latter took up her duties; But Cardinal Car-dinal Macchi, , secretary of apostolic briefs, hearing of this, forbade the Sister Sis-ter to fulfill her duties, oiuthe ground that the marriage was non-existent. The prince was furious, and exerted all his influence to overcome the scruples of the church, but without avail. Eventually he was obliged to send to England for a nurse. The incident in-cident is expected to have important developments. When the news of the marriage of Mrs. Parkhurst .to Prince Rospigliosi reached the United States it was asserted as-serted that at first the Vatican refused to sanction the marriage because Mrs. Parkhurst was a divorced woman, but , as the prince declared she shoul l te his j wife, with or without the consent of the church, sanction was finally given. Mr3. Parkhurst is a granddaughter of Samuel Chester Reid, who commanded command-ed the American privateer. Brigadier General Armstrong, in the battle at Fa3'al. in the war of 1S12. On her mother's moth-er's side she is descended from the Rowan family of Kentucky. About ten year3 ago, in Washington, she met Mr. Parkhurst,' who is a member of the Maine legislature, and of General Hill's staff, with the rank of colonel. The couple were married and lived happily for a time in Bangor. They had two children, Several years ago j they became estranged, and Colonel Parkhurst sued for divorce. The divorce di-vorce was granted, and Mrs. Parkhurst left the city. . At Bar Harbor she met Prince Joseph, Jo-seph, who fell in love with her. The above dispatch is both misleading mislead-ing and eroneous. The "English Blue sisters," rf subject to the jurisdiction of the church, are bound to obey its ordinances. A soldier who would disobey dis-obey his commanding officer would be courtmartialed. Without obedience to legitimate authority, discipline and good order would be impossible. The 1 command of the Cardinal, under the circumstances, may be severe, but that it should necessitate the sending to England for a trained nurse is difficult diffi-cult to understand. The refusal of the Vatican to sanction sanc-tion the marriage of the prince, and afterwards changing to placate the groom is a yarn made out of whole cloth. If the Princess Rospigliose was validly married to her first husband, Colonel Frederick H. Parkhurst of Bangor. Me., the Vatican is powerless to dissolve the union and sanction her marriage with the prince. The indissolubility indis-solubility of marriage validly contracted con-tracted is a divine law, over which the Pope has po jurisdiction. To say that the Vatican yielded to the prince as a compromise would mean a change in doctrine, which every Catholic knows could not be. False in one thing throws discredit on the whole story. We expect ex-pect the refusal of Cardinal Macchi in allowing the English sister to wait on her patient will be contradicted, too. |