The Papal Divorce Court

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 16, 1913

The Papal Divorce Court

WHILE the Papacy denounces divorces sanctioned by civil authority, the Roman Catholic Church by its ecclesiastical decree is really a universal divorce court. The flimsy grounds upon which separations are granted would not be recognized in Reno. There is no State of the American Union with divorce laws so loose that a marriage can be annulled upon such grounds as in the case of Tremblay versus Despatie, which has just been decided by the court of review in the province of Quebec. Napoleon Tremblay was married to Malvena Despatie on Oct.

25, 1904. After they had lived together for eight years he discovered that one hundred years ago the progenitors of himself and his wife were first cousins. He traced their lineage to the present day, and was able to adduce evidence to show that the woman whom he had married was his fourth cousin. They were both ignorant of this fact at the time of their marriage. It could be remedied to-day by the payment of five dollars for a dispensation. But the husband wanted to get rid of his wife, so he refused to pay the five dollars, and demanded as a right the annulment of his marriage. This was given to him upon the ground that the marriage of fourth cousins is prohibited by the laws of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. And what is more deplorable, the civil courts of that province have just confirmed the decision of the ecclesiastical court.

We shall carry the judgment of our readers when we say that no divorce court in the world would enable a man to escape the obligations which he assumed at marriage and to cast his wife adrift upon such a plea as that which has been successful in the tribunal of a church which claims to be the chief defense of the sanctity of the home.—The Sentinel, Toronto, Dec. 12, 1912.