[Harold B. Lee]
With reference to your letter concerning the sealings of your parents [by Matthias F. Cowley in Mexico in 1902], as I have indicated to you, I took this matter up with the First Presidency and they have written a reply thereto as follows:
'Sister Christensen seems to be under the impression that her father and mother were not sealed. It is our understanding, and we have so answered others, that these marriages performed under the circumstances indicated in this sister's letter to you were real sealings. It appears that sometimes these sealings were later confirmed in the temple, but that has never been considered as necessary, and the First Presidency seem always to have ruled that they were valid marriages under the laws of the Church governing celestial marriages and sealings. Under these circumstances the children were, of course, born under the covenant. You may so advise this sister.
'Furthermore, it has been the understanding over the years in the First Presidency's office that whereas, not infrequently, it was suggested to people so married in Mexico that they should go to the temple if they had the opportunity and have these sealings recorded, that suggestion was made that there might be a temple record of the sealings, and not because the temple ceremony, whatever it was, was necessary to make the marriages legal and valid under Church law.
'Faithfully your brethren, [signed] 'David O. McKay
'J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
'Henry D. Moyle
'The First Presidency'
Sincerely yours,
[Harold B. Lee, Letter to Maude Lillywhite Christensen, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015, Appendix 8: The Reinstatements of Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor]
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