October 9, 1898
The newly married Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenberg is being denied the Sacraments because of her marriage to the Protestant Duke Ernst Günther.
The former Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a member of the Roman Catholic branch of the Coburg family. Her mother is the former Princess Louise of Belgium, who was charged with forgery a few years ago and was sent to an insane asylum.
The Duke has refused to agree with the Vatican's demand that the couple's children be raised Roman Catholic. This has meant that the Roman Catholic church will not consider the marriage to be valid. The priest who performed a blessing at the Lutheran service has since been censured by the Pope.
The Duchess is now barred from taking the Sacraments, and "the Catholic clergy at Prinkenau, her future home, being instructed to ignore her, just as if she were not lawfully married."
The couple was married in Coburg in August. Shortly after the wedding, one newspaper wrote that the "priest committed a grave breach of faith and the Princess of was guilty, by marrying according to the Protestant rite, of a deadly sin."
The Duke of Schleswig-Holstein's sister, Auguste Viktoria, is the wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
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