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Churches Combine To Defeat Obnoxious Clause
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LONDON. — A controversial clause which would have allowed divorce by mutual consent was struck from a divorce reform bill before the bill was passed by the House of Commons. Following protests from Protestant and Catholic Church leaders and pressure from Members of Parliament, the bill's sponsor, Leo Abse, an opposition Labour Party backbencher, removed the clause from his bill so that the rest of it would go through Parliament. The bill—a private member's bill which the British press dubbed the "kiss-and-make-up" bill, from a clause providing for a reconciliation period—now goes to the House of Lords. The struck clause would have allowed divorce after seven years' separation even when- no matrimonial o ffence was committed.
A Reconciliation Period The bill's main point as it now stands is its provision for a reconciliation period, to give estranged couples a chance to remake their marriages without endangering divorce proceedings if reconciliation should fail, Catholic, Anglican and Free Church leaders, in an unusual joint statement, welcomed the reconciliation plan, but condemned divorce by mutual consent. They said that it would "help to undermine the basic understanding of marriage as a lifelong union," and that it would bring a "dangerous new principle into our marriage laws." When the bill came up for its final approval, several members attacked the "mutual consent" clause. Abse, noting that "this mild reform has .aroused the most formidable opposition," agreed to drop the clause if the House would let the rest of the bill go through. One of Abse's supporters, John Parker, another Labour Party member, told the Commons: "There is very strong resentment among many people at the attitude taken by the churches in this country. Only ten per cent of our fellow-countrymen are regular churchgoers and I do not think any sections of the population have a right to force their views on marriage or divorce on the great majority. "If the churches persist in this attitude, they will produce an anti-clerical wave of feeling in this country. "There has never been such a wave of feeling up to date because they have not taken such a line before. • . . They (the churches) will have deserved it (the anti -clerical feeling) and they will suffer from it."
American Increase In Numbers Catholic Catho lic Parents Do A `Croulburn' ST, LOUIS (U.S.A.): A "wildcat- move by Catholic parents of removing their children from parothial schools and enrolling them in public schools has mushroomed in r u r al areas and could spell "financial disaster" for the State public school system. The movement is a protest over the killing by the Missouri House Judiciary Committee of a bill which Would permit all students, regardless of the school they attend, to ride on taxPaid school buses. glEE PAGE 15 Mr
Sist:.s.r M. CECILY, Mother M. ALPHONSUS, Sister M TARCISIUS from St. John of God.
Honours To :Nursing Sisters
Sister M. EVARISTUS (St. John of God)
An honour was paid to MOTHER M. ALPHONSUS, M.B.E., of the St. John of God Convent, Derby. on Friday last, when she was presented as an Honorary Fellow of the College of Nursing, Australia. The ceremony took place at Winthrop Hall in the University of Western Australia during the annual meeting of the College of Nursing, Australia, which this year was held in Perth. Along with Mother Alphonsus, SISTER M. CECILY and SISTER M. TARCISIUS, of St. John of God Convents, Subiaco and Northam, SISTER M. CHRISTINE, of the Convent of Mercy (St. Anne's), Mt. Lawley. and SISTER M. PHILIP, of the Nursing Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, Calvary House, North Ade'aide, were also presented. Present also for the ceremony was SISTER M. EVARISTUS, St. John of God. Subiaco. who was presented in 1960 in Ade!aide. Mother Alphonsus received her honorary fellowship for her work in Darby, where she has been matron of the Derby State Leprosarium for 20 years. There she formcd the first native orchestra of violins, cello and effects. • Sister M. Philip. who is the senior Tutor Sister in the Calvary Hospital, North Adelaide„ came- across as a delegate to the Perth meeting.
Sister M. CHRISTINE (Sisters of Mercy)
Sister M. PHILIP (Little Company of Mary)
CATHOLICS n o w comprise one-quarter of the Australian population, it is revealed in the latest edition of "Australia—Facts and Figures," issued in Canberra by the News and Information Bureau of the Department of the Interior. For the seven-year-period 1954-1961 Catholics showed the greatest numerical increase-559,000--of any religious group. During the same seven years, Catholic percentage of t he population rose from 22.9 per cent to 24.9 per cent. This contrasts with a net non-Catholic decrease over the same period of three per cent.