Executive Order  No. 20: (1st Series) Authorizing resident and non-resident Armed Forces Chaplains to solemnize marriages of Armed Forces personnel

WHEREAS, the provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 207, section 38, restrict the solemnization of marriages by clergymen to those residing in the Commonwealth or to certain limited classes of non-resident clergymen; and

WHEREAS, under the provisions of section 39 of said chapter 207 the Governor may, in his discretion, designate a non-resident clergyman to solemnize a specified marriage; and

WHEREAS, the military and naval authorities of the Government of the United States, in order to reduce expense and inconvenience to members of the armed forces, and to promote and maintain the present high morale of troops expecting to depart for foreign shores, have requested that some provision be made in order that unnecessary delay may be avoided for those in the armed forces who have arranged to be married; and

WHEREAS, it frequently happens that the contracting parties to a marriage earnestly desire that it be solemnized by a chaplain of the armed forces resident of the state of territory from whence they came:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the provisions of the Acts of 1941, chapter 719, section 7, Acts of 1942, chapter 13, and all other authority vested in me, do hereby issue this order as a measure necessary and expedient for meeting the supreme emergency of the existing state of war between the United States and certain foreign countries.

Persons, both resident and non-resident in this Commonwealth, who are serving as chaplains with the armed forces of the United States within the geographical limits of this Commonwealth, may solemnize marriages therein, provided that at least one of the parties to any such marriage is, at the time thereof, a member of the armed forces of the United States.

The provisions of General Laws (Ter. Ed.) chapter 207, shall be applicable to said chaplains and to marriages performed by them pursuant to the provisions of this order, except in so far as said provisions may be inconsistent with the terms of this order.

GIVEN at the Executive Chamber in Boston, this ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and forty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and sixty-sixth.

By His Excellency the Governor, Leverett Saltonstall

Frederic W. Cook, Secretary of the Commonwealth