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 CALIFORNIA

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CALIFORNIA

charitable or eleemosynary objects, but which are not used "solely and exclusively for religious worship", are still subject to taxation as before. The law exempts "ministers of religion" from military duty; and "a minister of the gospel, or a priest of any denomination following his profession" is exempt from jury duty.

Marriage and Divorce. — The Civil Code defines marriage as "a personal relation arising out of a civil contract, to which the consent of parties capable of making that contract is necessary. Consent alone will not constitute marriage ; it must be followed by a solemnization authorized by this code" (§55). This section of the code formerly permitted "a mutual assumption of marital rights, duties or obligations" to take the place of a solemnization. In other words, the so-called common-law marriages were permitted, and their validity upheld, by the laws of the State. But the difficulty of determining just what consti- tuted "a mutual assumption of marital rights, duties or obligations", and the numerous and scandalous cases of intrigue, temporary or illicit relations, hasty, ill-advised, and clandestine unions, with their conse- quent perplexing questions of legitimacy, succession, property rights, and the status of the parties them- selves, convinced the leading minds of California that the position of the Catholic Church on the necessity of the public safeguards with which she protects the marriage ceremony, is the only wise and safe one. Accordingly, in 1895, the legislature amended the law, and made it necessary that the consent of the parties to the marriage be evidenced by a solemnization of the marriage. No particular form of solemnization is required, but the parties must declare in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage that they take each other as husband and wife. Marriages may be solemnized by a priest, or minister of any denomina- tion, or by a justice or judge of any court. A licence must first be obtained, and the person solemnizing the marriage must attach his written certificate to the licence, certifying to the fact, the time, and the place of, and the names and residences of the parties and the witnesses to, the marriage. The licence and cer- tificate must then be recorded with the County Re- corder. Under these stringent rules little or no diffi- culty is found in proving a marriage; and all relations between the sexes arc simply meretricious unless the parties avail themselves of the legal requirements of solemnization of marriage. There is a charitable provision of the law, designed for the benefit of inno- cent offspring, to the effect that all children of a mar- riage void in law or dissolved by divorce are legiti- mate. The age of consent to marriage is eighteen in males, and fifteen in females; but if the male be under the age of twenty-one, or the female under the age of eighteen, the consent of parents or guardian must first be obtained. The law of the State forbids and makes absolutely void marriages (1) between whites and negroes, mongolians, or mulattoes; (2) between ancestors and descendants, brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews (marriages be- tween cousins are permitted); (:i) if either party be already married, for one year after the entry of an interlocutory decree of divorce. The annulment of marriages is provided for in certain cases; such mar- riages are considered voidable and may be annulled for any of the following causes: (1 ) if, at the time of the marriage, either party be under the age of con- sent, and the consent of parents or guardian be not obtained; (2) if either party be of unsound mind at the time of the marriage; (■'-!) if consent to tin- marriage

l.r obtained by fr I ; or (-1 1 by force, or (5) if cither

parly be physically incapable of entering into the marriage state. The annulment of marriage must be carefully distinguished from divorce. The latter im- plies the existence of a perfectly valid marriage. The former affords relief to the injured party, who may

either ratify the marriage, and thus make it valid from the beginning, or have it set aside and declared void from the beginning.

The principle of divorce is recognized by the law of California, which assigns six grounds of divorce: adultery, extreme cruelty, wilful desertion, wilful neglect (failure to provide), habitual intemperance, and conviction of a felony. Notwithstanding that a cause for divorce be proved to exist, the divorce must be denied upon proof of any of the following: conni- vance, collusion, condonation, recrimination (proof of a cause of divorce against the plaintiff), or lapse of time. To prevent fraudulent and secret divorces, as well as the promiscuous granting of divorces, the law requires a bona fide residence by the plaintiff for one year in the State, and for three months in the county, before filing suit. Upon dissolution of the marriage by divorce, the Superior Court has jurisdiction to award the care and custody of the children to the inno- cent party, or to make such other provision for their care and custody as the best interests of the children, both moral and material, may require: and this dispo- sition may be altered from time to time in the discre- tion of the Court.

In 1903 the law on the subject of divorce was amended. Since that year, upon proof by the plain- tiff of a cause of divorce, an interlocutory decree of divorce is granted. This decree entitles the success- ful party to a final decree of divorce upon the expira- tion of one year after the entry of the interlocutory decree. This change in the law prevents the re- marriage of either of the parties until the expira- tion of one year from the entry of the interlocutory decree.

Education. — As previously explained, the Church receives no financial aid from the State towards the religious education of her children, and here, as else- where, Catholics are taxed for the support of public schools, as well as charged with the duty of main- taining schools of their own. Here also, as elsewhere, the effects of the public school system of non-religious education emphasize the necessity of providing for Catholic youth a complete system of education that includes, with the best profane scholarship, a sound moral and religious training. This need is especially felt in the university courses, whose systems of phil- osophy, if not positively anti-Christian, are certainly not calculated to foster belief in a personal God, or to strengthen faith in a Divine revelation. There are liberal statutes in force, permitting and encouraging the foundation and maintenance of private institu- tions of learning, and the only interference permitted the State authorities concerns the supervision of sanitary arrangements, and the prescribing of such standards of scholarship as will entitle graduates to admission to the State University without examination.

There are also liberal statutes authorizing the in- corporation of religious, social, benevolent, or chari- table organizations. Such corporations may make and enforce rules for the government of themselves and their institutions, and may purchase and hold such real property as may be necessary for the objects of the association, not exceeding six whole lots in any city or town, or fifty acres in the country, and the an- nual profit or income of such land must not exceed $50,000. Orphan asylums, however, maintaining at least 101) orphans are permitted In purchase and hold 160 acres of land, of a net annual value of not more than $50,000. These provisions, it must be remem- bered, do not limit the power of purely religious cor- porations, whether sole or aggregate, to purchase and hold such lands as may be necessary for their churches, hospitals, Schools, colleges, orphan asylums, and par- sonages, under statutes previously discussed. The State Constitution prohibits the appropriating of public money "for the support of any sectarian or