The Catholic Marriage Controversy
The California “Christian Advocate” and the Roman Catholic Monitor have been having almost anything but a pleasant exchange of civilities of late, the Advocate contending that “marriage was an inherent right, and could not be set aside by ‘Ne Temere’ decrees, while the Monitor contends that the statement of the Methodist paper and its inference are both barefaced lies. The Advocate had been saying that in Roman Catholic countries, where the people were not allowed to marry freely and naturally, the number of children born out of wedlock was almost equal to the number born in wedlock, and that ‘certificating’ marriages was essentially inadequate.” The Advocate continues: “The Monitor must be a little patient with us. We should have said that in Austria, in 1905, there were born out of wedlock 118,110 children, in Hungary 67,480, in France 71,500, and in Italy 58,850. In Mexico, the same year, 184,974 children were born out of wedlock.” And then the Advocate touches upon the illiteracy question, and says: “In Austria 26 per cent can neither read nor write, in Mexico 82.9 per cent, in Peru 86 per cent, in Brazil 85.2 per cent, in Chile 49 per cent, in Bolivia 82, in Spain 57.7, in Portugal 73.4, in Hungary 40, etc. There is no need of quarreling with the California Christian Advocate and calling us bad names when the statistics are at hand. We hope on this showing the Monitor will take us out of the Ananias club, but we expect it won’t.” The Advocate has acted about the same with reference to the SIGNS OF THE TIMES and the Sunday law it so much desires.