The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-12-20
DIVORCE IN ENGLAND.

Mr.. Justice Darling, having eight
cen cases of bigamy to try at the
present Kent Assizes, spoke at Maid
stone as follows, says the London
Catholic Universe: Lately, people
have come to take very low view of
marriage relations. 1t is easy enough
now, goodness knows, to get a divorce
the simplest thing in the world.
Some hundreds of people were di
vorced in London on the day that |
came here, and there is movement,
which | dare say will succeed, to allow
people to get divorce in county courts
on very cheap and easy terms. At
present people do not seem to take
the trouble to apply for divorce. |
have got eighteen cases of bigamy.
People regard the marriage contract
as Of no Importance whatever. AS a
matter Of fact, it is the most sacred
engagement that any one can enter
into, and yet many people treat it as
if it were no more binding than an en-
gagement to go out to dinner. Bar
ring Mr.. Justice Darling's assertion
that marriage is the most" sacred
engagement possible for men and
women, we thoroughly endorse his
structures But how has the sacred
ness of marriage and honorable fidel-
ity to- the plighted troth fallen into
such contempt amongst English men
and women?
This depreciation of the Sacrament
of Marriage is simply the working out
of the Protestant Reformation" The
Great Rebellion" as DR.. Jessop can
didly styled it, cast off the authority
of the Holy See which maintained the
sanctity of Henry Wills first mar
liage at the cost of losing England.
1t continues to uphold the inviolabil-
ity of the nuptial tie. IN the middle
of last century a Protestant-English
Parliament gave its religiousTy monde
script blessing to limited measure of
divorce, the thin end of the immoral
wedge. And now our social thinkers
would drive the wedge home and en-
title the husband and wife to any num-
Der of divorces and t're-marriages' =
a fat reputation of st. Pauls teach
ing in the seventh chapter of his
Epistle TO the Romans. The present
offspring of that National Church
which claimed strictly biblical foun-
datiOn and pretended only to have
eliminated Roman" corruptions Of
the pure eyangel treats this word of
7 NTH
Epistle, as so much straw" On the
slippery inclined plane of sexual pas
sion there is, in fact, no stable eQuilib-
rum to be found between the severe
Catholic summit of indissoluble mar
riage and the base Of protiigacy, with
disruption Of the social unit-the fam
lily .,~.s.-..- .....s ....
Such considerations gain added CO.
gency when one is faced with such in
cidents as that OF well-known mem
Der of Parliament's apology for his re-
cent divorce and his account of the
manner in which it was obtained. A
legal verdict was secured while the
foundation which the law requires for
that verdict was absent, and then the
defense Of that operation is actually
lauded by an evening paper as 'cour-
ageous and Spirited 1t is no
use for either the person concerned or
his defender in the press to ride off
On the plea that Anglicanism, more
cruel than the law hinders the re
form OF the latter The State
Church, being subject to the State, is
net in a position to be either "cruel
or kind" 1t is the remnant Of Chris
t:anity which still persists in our laws,
tAat still restricts the general loosen
ing of the matrimonial tie amongst
Us. Such abuses of the law as have
been here disclosed, to say nothing
of the outrageous position in which
the second lady concerned in the case
was placed, are no sign of healthy re-
volt against legal hardships, but
rather of the general lowering of the
ethical sense SO manifest just now in
certain circles of society.