The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-01-14
ONE RECENTLY GRANTED IN ENGLAND
NO POWER ON EARTH CAN DISSOL,E
a CONSUMMATED MARRIAGE.
CASE OF HENRY VIII AND CA1HERIA:
POPE HAD NO AUTHORITY TO SEVER
THE MATRIMONIAL BOND,

The recent divorce case OF LaubenQuc
vs.. LaubenQue, in which both parties
are Catholics, has attracted some meas
lue Of notice, and has occasioned not a
little misleading comment ON the part
! OF certain organs of the nom Catholic
press, says the London Tablet Yet the
| proceedings will have been found SUI
| ficiently clear by all who are at all ac-
| quainted with Catholic teaching con-
| cerning the indissolubility of Christian
marriage and the constant practice of
| the Roman chancery. The church. in
dealing with the bond of matrimony,
has consistently considered that bond
| in two stages-tirst, the bond as in
| augurated by the ceremony or celehra-
| tion in which the parties lawfully eX-
| press their mutual consent; and, sec
| ondly, the same bond as completed by
the consummation Of the marriage and
| the parties living together as man and
wife. In the language of the church,
the first is marriage ratified, and the
! second is marriage consummated. The
point which non-Catholic writer's appear
| SO often to miss or ignore is that in
Catholic teaching and practice, founded
on divine law, from which the church
herself has no power to dispense, at
taches not to marriage merely ratified,
but to marriage consummated, in which
the parties have lived together as man
and wife. 1t marriage has been law
fully celebrated before the altar, it is,
indeed, indssouble by any private or
| secular authority. But SO far, and
| while the parties have never yet lived
| together, and while the bond remains
incompletcd by consummaton, it is not
so indissoublc that the church may not.
for good and sufficient reasons. affecting
| the happiness or spiritual welfare of the
parties, exercise her authority and dis
solve the incomplcted bond, and leave
the parties free to contract another mar
riagc. Cases Of dissolution of such
ceremonial marriage-or. as it is tech
| nically called, marriage ratified, but not
| consummated-have been readily rccog
niZed by the church, and dispcnsations
to that effect are of not infreguent oc-
currence in the well known practice of
| the Holy See.
"On the other hand, the absolute in
dissolubility of the bond of marriage be-
tween parties who have once lived to-
gether as man and wife-and this, after
all, is the practical case for society-is
| unfalteringly and unflinchingly main
tanned by the Catholic church with the
| whole weight of her immutablc author
ity. The church, moreover teaches that
the indissolubility Of the marriage bond
thus completed is matter of divine law,
and that neither she nor any power on
earth has any power to dispense from It,
The church dispenses from her own law,
but not from the laws of her Master
she has given proof Of her sincerity and
infiexible integrity in being ready even
to sacrifice the allegiance of whole
| kingdom rather than betray this sacred
benque vs. Laubenque is the simple and
| ordinary one-there are dozens such on
the list of the Sacred Congregation of
the Council-of Il dissolution of matri-
monium rat,Im scd non conslmmatum-
marriage ratified, but not conslmmutcd,
or In other words, marriage celebrated,
but in which the parties have never
| lived together as man and wife.
'"rhe facts are quite romantic enough
to make excellent copy A Catholic
| school girl of 1G and of good position
makes the acquaintance OF distn-
| guished foreigner who has u cOrOnct on
the corner of his pocket handkerchief,
| and can produce grapes grown at his an
| ccstral chateau in France. After the
| usual difficulties, the consent of the
young lady's father is secured, and the
parties are married in the Catholic ca
thedral at Edinburgh. At the conclusion
of the ceremony, the father very proper
ly insists that the bridegroom before
claiming his bride, shall 20 to Paris and
obtain the authorization of his marriage
The bridegroom goes, but never returns
| Moreover, he turns out to be an alven-
ture, in the sense of having grossly de-
ceived the lady and her parents as to his
position and prospects. And further,
according to the evidence, he entered
into a liason with another person, and
declines to return to the bride left at the
| altar
Under these circumstances the pro-
ceedings which the Catholic family have
taken are precisely what we should
have expected. The case went before
| the court of the archbishop of Edin-
burgh, and passed thence into the ordi-
nary course to the Holy See. The evil
dence furnished proved that she and the
respondent had never lived together, and