§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask Mr. Attorney-General if he is aware that the Leeds Town Council have granted permission to Roman Catholics to hold a service in Kirkstall Abbey, which is public property held for the use of the notion by the Leeds Town Council; 120 and whether, seeing that it is illegal for any Roman Catholic ecclesiastic or any member of any of the religious orders, communities, or societies of the Church of Rome, bound by monastic or religious vows, to exercise any of the rites or ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion, or wear the habits of his order, save within the usual places of worship of the Roman Catholic religion or in private houses, and that the Roman Catholic bishop of Leeds has granted an indulgence of fifty days to all who take part in, or are present at, this service, he proposes to take steps to stop this illegal practice.
(Answered by Sir John Walton. )The property in the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey is vested in the Leeds Corporation. They are a body fully competent to decide for what purposes it should be used. They have also in their service an officer whose duty it is to advise them with reference to the legality of their action. I have no power to stop the proceeding to which the Question refers.