Sir, – David Jameson (December 19th) shows some knowledge of papal decrees but misses the fundamental point. The Council of Trent required that a marriage must take place before three witnesses – the parish priest and two lay people (today's bridesmaid and best man).
However, in 1741 Benedict XIV ruled that the marriage laws of Trent did not apply to places under Protestant government. In 1785 the Tridentine law had been promulgated everywhere in Ireland except Leinster and Galway and a declaration was obtained from Pius VI that it did not include mixed marriage in Ireland. Fifty years later the laws of Trent were applied to all of Ireland, again excluding mixed marriage. This was reinforced in 1906 in the Decree Provida which stipulated that mixed marriage everywhere would be exempt and always valid when conducted before a Protestant minister.
Ne Temere (1908) required that all marriages, including mixed marriage, were now bound by the Tridentine law, ie the marriage must take place before a Roman Catholic priest. The upbringing of the children was not completely explicit in Ne Temere but was unambiguous in the new Code of Canon Law 1917.
Ne Temere was applied enthusiastically by both clergy and politicians in Ireland and retrospectively, often contrary to Canon Law, and marriages of long standing were broken up. This was typified by the infamous McCann case in Belfast (1910). Dr Garret FitzGerald has shown that the net result of this was the reduction of the Protestant population in the Irish Free State/Republic by 80 per cent. In the same period the Roman Catholic population of Northern Ireland increased by 60 per cent. Thus Ne Temere became a principle reason why we do not have a united Ireland.
Which then was the more successful sectarian regime: Dublin/Maynooth or Belfast/Stormont? – Yours, etc,
Dr KEN DUNN,
Chair, Northern Ireland
Mixed Marriage Association,
Bedford Street, Belfast.