and
validly
has been
210
licensed although there
publication. It is
simply to give information to the public. I think there is no
necessity
or in whatever in this case, all the
world knows that the Church of the Immaculate Conception is a place licensed by Government for the celebration of marriages.
If Your Excellency maintains publication advisable, I would suggest the republication in the
Gazette of the notice at page 109 of the volume for 1876 in its entirety, simply altering the description of Church as to locality, and that without
any
note or comment. I do not think, nor
will Your Excellency, that it would be advisable to allow the publication of anything that could excite the faintest suspicion as to the validity of the
marriages celebrated in this
Church. Your Excellency has here
253
another illustration of the defects of that awful Ordinance of 1875, the offspring of sectarian feelings put together by men who appear to know
little of the law with which they
are dealing.
Besides
being bad in
principle, the Ordinance is irregular and
defective in its framework.
The
sooner
Your Excellency
annuls it the better for the sake of
humanity
and the honour of the
English nation.
I have received information that many marriages
have taken place in this Church since its opening.
I have, &c.
I. T. Raimondi.
Bishop Vicar Apostolic.