OCR Text |
Show WEDDED OR NO? QUEBEC FOLK DO NOT KNOW Thousands Joined By Non- Canadian Priests Are Illegally Married MONTREAL. Jan 2S (By the Associated As-sociated Press) Study of Quebec statutes sta-tutes has just brought to light that j thousands Of marriages hSkVe been illegally ille-gally performed In this province during the last 100 vears. because of the nationality na-tionality of officiating clergymen An act passed in 1829 before the Canadian Canad-ian confederation was formed, and while Quebec was still the British colony col-ony of Lower Canada, provided that only clergymen who were British subjects sub-jects could perform marriage ceremonies cere-monies When in 1867, Quebec Joined the other prov inces to form the dominion, domin-ion, she retained her civil law Intact No civil marriages are performed in the province- Clergymen of various denominations record ceremonies In civil registers provided by tho government gov-ernment .Since 1829 many clergymen have come to Quebec from other countries, coun-tries, especially the I'nlted States, to take (Large of pastorates and they have officiated at marriages without regard to their nationality. Besides Americans, many Catholic prlfsf9 of French citizenship have been officiating at marriage ceremonies. |