Princess Dorothea criticized for priest at wedding

August 6, 1898

Princess Dorothea of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha has been censured for the "passive assistance" of a Catholic priest at her recent marriage to Duke Ernst Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein, reports the New York Times,.

The presence of the priest at the wedding has caused much discussion in the "Ultramontane press."  The Cologne Volks-Zeitung stated: "The priest committed a grave breach of faith and the Princess was guilty, by marrying according to the Protestant rite, of deadly sin."

The Augsburg Post Zeitung chimed in with: "The Coburg family has been guilty of another public nuisance."

Princess Dorothea is the daughter of Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his estranged wife, Princess Louise of Belgium.    She married Duke Ernst Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein on August 2.  The Duke is the brother of Empress Auguste Viktoria, consort of Wilhelm II.

The new Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein is a Roman Catholic.  Her husband is Lutheran.  The couple were married in a Lutheran ceremony.

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2010/08/duke-of-schleswg-holstein-marries.html

http://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2010/08/pope-offended-by-ernst-gunthers.html