Marriage in Quebec

For members of its flock, the Roman Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of marriages performed by civil officials or non-Catholic clergymen. The Church, moreover, disapproves of "mixed marriages" between Catholics and non-Catholics, requires certain promises from the non-Catholic before granting a dispensation for the union. In Quebec, 85% Catholic, a combination of these facts has operated in recent years to the disadvantage of non-Catholics and their clergy. Many a mixed marriage, upon being declared null & void by church courts, has in turn been annulled by civil courts. To justify such annulments, many Catholics hold that the religious principles of old French law have been perpetuated in three Canadian constitutions (1774, 1791, 1867).

Last week in Montreal, Chief Justice Robert Alfred Ernest Greenshields of Superior Court set a new precedent by canceling an annulment. Before him was the case of a mixed marriage, performed by an Anglican minister, which was voided by Judge Alfred Forest, a Catholic, on the ground that the minister was incompetent to perform the marriage and because of a technicality about the witnesses. The Chief Justice, an Anglican, declared: "Such authority as the Church has in civil matters is given to it by the law of the land, and the Church and every church is subservient to and in no sense dominates the law. . . . Any church may bless or curse a marriage to its ecclesiastical heart's content but it does not in any way affect the validity of the marriage."

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