70 Iowa 455 | Iowa | 1886
The rule in respect to Easter duties is said
The case, as it is presented to us, is a very peculiar one. The court below was asked to. determine, as a fact, whether the deceased confessed all his sins at Easter, in the year 1882, and to sustain the right of this defendant society to withhold from this widow, and her children, in case the deceased failed to so confess, a pecuniary benefit fully paid for by him. ¥e feel constrained to say that there appears to us to be something unseemly in mixing pecuniary rights with what should be looked upon as a purely religious duty. Possibly, notwithstanding this, the society has a right to stand upon its contract, and ask the courts to sustain it according to its letter. But, if this be so, it is the duty of the courts to scrutinize with considerable care the evidence adduced in proof of the neglect. Courts do not take very kindly to forfeitures under any circumstances, and this ought
If he had made any confession at all, and received the sacrament of the eucharist, we presume that no question would be raised as to whether he confessed them all or not. Probably the society would not deem it proper to go into an inquiry as to the specific sins of the deceased, for the purpose of ascertaining whether any remained unconfessed or not. While we think that the defendant would be liberal in this respect, it seems to ask us to presume that the deceased had, upon his conscience, in Easter, 1882, unpardoned sins to confess, and that, too, in the face of the elementary rule that the law never presumes a wrong. Of course, it is not claimed that a eourt can, in a general way, hold that there is a legal presumption that a given person did, during a given, time, commit sins. The defendant’s position is not very well defined in this respect; but we understand it to be that the defendant contracted as a Catholic, and that the contract is to be construed with reference to such fact, and that we are to take judicial notice of'every fact necessary for the proper construction of it as a Catholic contract. For the purpose of the opinion, this maybe conceded; but, after holding all presumptions in favor of the defendant which it can properly claim, or does claim, we have to say that it is not denied and cannot be, that the burden was upon the defendant to show that the deceased failed to make confession as required.
The defendant assumed this burden, and undertook to prove the failure by one Peschong, a Roman Catholic priest, who had charge of the Catholic congregation at Garnavillo from December, 1879, to October, 1883. ITe testified in these words: “I knew Franz <7. Matt. He was a member of Garnavillo parish. As far as my knowledge is concerned, I
This is the evidence relied upon by the defendant to sustain the issue upon its part that the deceased did not perform his Easter duties. In our opinion, the evidence wholly fails. In the first place, it does not appear that the deceased belonged to the Garnavillo parish during the whole or any part of Easter, 1882. Perhaps we ought to consider it as proven that he belonged to that parish at some time between December, 1879, and the time of his death, in the spring of 1883. But that is the .most which the evidence shows in this respect. It appears from the evidence that he was a farmer, and that the Catholic church nearest to him was at Elkport. There was, it is true, some attempt to show that he did not perform Easter duties at Elkport. The Rev. Peschong, pastor at Garnavillo, heard the German confessions at Elkport, and did not hear the confession of the deceased. But there is not the slightest evidence that the deceased did not confess
It is contended by the defendant that the deceased belonged to the G-arnavillo parish during the whole of Easter, 1882, and could not have performed Easter duties except by confession to the pastor of that parish. We have attempted to show that it is’not proven that the deceased belonged to the Garnavillo parish during the whole, or any part, of the time in question. But it would not follow, if he did, that he might not have confessed elsewhere. It is not shown that Catholics absent from home may not observe their religious duties wherever they may happen to be. If there is any church whose unity and catholicity are more complete, we are not aware of it. The rule, it is true, provides for confession to the penitent’s pastor. But we think that we are justified in inferring, under the evidence, that, for the time, he is regarded as the penitent’s pastor who anywhere in the world may properly receive his confession, and administer the sacrament of the eucharist. There is not an intimation in the evidence to the contrary, and it is affirmatively shown that the Garnavillo pastor heard German confessions of Elk-port parishioners.
The plaintiffs contend that, even if it were true that the deceased neglected his Easter duties, the defendant waived the
One very grave question is urged upon our attention by the counsel for the appellee. It is insisted by it that the
We think that the judgment of the circuit court must be
Reversed.