What Pope Pius XI Says on Mixed Marriages.
 The religious character of marriage, its sublime signification of grace, and the union between Christ and the Church evidently requires that those about to marry should show a holy reverence towards it and zealously endeavor to make their marriage approach as nearly as possible to the archetype of Christ and the Church

Engelder, T.

English

Concordia Seminary, St. Louis: Scholarly Resources

Concordia Theological Monthly Volume 3 Article 102 10-1-1932 Roman Church Law and Mixed Marriages T. Engelder Concordia Seminary, St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm  Part of the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Engelder, T. (1932) "Roman Church Law and Mixed Marriages," Concordia Theological Monthly: Vol. 3 , Article 102. Available at: https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol3/iss1/102 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Print Publications at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Concordia Theological Monthly by an authorized editor of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact seitzw@csl.edu. Boman Claun:b Law and Klud Karri..,.. 7&1 ~t fragen: IBeidjcl ift bic 1: i dj ti g c 1Jmnd¥ 9>enn fJaib IIH11: fie dne CEtffarung, fJaib cin 13efenntnil, fla b ci e IBcnebi!tion. Qlinl ift bem Iut~rlf djen l!iturgcn fiat, namtidj bafs c1: bic ffonnel nidjt in bn Clej'talt, h>ic fie bon bent ~eifanbe gcbraudjt h>utbc, anh>enbcn !411n, blenigftenl nidjt oljnc bic cin(citcnbcn IBortc: ~CEful fpradj. ~cnn bann fommen lull: in bal ffaljrluaffct bet Unicdcn (unb bicl t !Rcfotmietten), bie fidj bet ffonneI in biefen !Borten flebienen unb bamit bal ganac !Saframcnt 1111getuiu madjen. &ilt 11111 f onte bet fitdjlidj•litutgif dje GJe'6raudj aulf djfngge'6enb f ein, bet niimlidj bic <5i,enbefotmeI n i dj t a 11 e in e m hJ e f en t • Ii dj e n ~ ci I b e B <5 a f 1: a m e n U m a dj t , babei aflet bodj · f c i • n en GJ e fl ta u dj {J e f ii 1: tu o t t e t, ja 11ntet ltmftiinben batauf fJcfteljt. !i>enn bie !Si,enbefotmel be1: lutljerif djen ffirdje ift au cinem SBcfenntnil gemorben, bomeljmlidj alien reformieden ffirdjcngcmcinfdja~en gegen• iUJcr, bic bie lualjre GJcscntuatt beB i?eificl 11nb SBI11te1 (iljrifti im ffllenb• maljI Icugncn, inU. be: llnierten. !llit bem 58denntnil obe1: bet i?cljt• barlcguno alier bcrbinbet fidj bie f djon in bet mitteiartedidjen ffirdjc ulilidje f8cnebiftion, bi~ augicidj cine BJlaljnuno an bie ftommuni?anten cnt~n. bab bodj fcinet bcn 6 gcn bcl <5aframcntl betf djcqe. tJl. ~- She Q m a 11 n. Roman Church Law and Mixed Marriages.* The Papal En.cyclical and Ita Boman Interpretation. A. What Pope Pius XI Says on Mixed :Marriages. "Tho religious choroctcr of morriogo, its aublimo signification of grace, nnd the union between Obrist and tl10 Church evidently re-quires that those about to marry hould aliow a holy reverence towards it nnd zealously endeavor to mnko their marringo approach o.s nearly u poeaiblo to tho archetype of Christ ODd tho Church. "They therefore who rashly and hecdl088ly contract mixed mnr-riaaea, from which tho maternal love and providence of the Church cliuuades her children for very sound rco.sona, foil couapicuously n this respect, sometimes with danger to their eternal anlvation. Thia • Tllo two documents here printed from authentic aourc:e1 prcaent the 1ubject of mixed marriages nccording to official dcclaratlon1 of tho present Pope, Plus XI, and its interpretation by an acknowledged Roman Catholic 1poke■man. The 1CCtion of the encyclical of December 31, 1930, i1 taken from the book Four OnGt B,w:yalical• of tho Paull■t PreH, 101 f., and the dl■cuulon of mixed marriages on the ba1i1 of thl■ encyclical and previoua ■tatement■, by W. I. Lonergan, S. J., i■ taken from the periodical At11eric», April 23, 1932. Cf. Rcaden1 DigesC of June, 1032, pp. 66 and 69. The italicized ■ectlona are ■o indicated by ua. Every reader may readily make hll own application■• - BdiC. C0111m. 1Engelder: Roman Church Law and Mixed MarriagesPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1932752 Roman Church law and llbecl llarrla,-. attitude of the Church to mixed marriages appean in IIWl7 of her document-a, nll of which nre aummecl up in the Code of Common Law: 'Everywhere nnd with the grenteat atrictueaa the Church forbid& mar-riages bet.ween baptized peraons ono f whom ia n Catholic and the-other a 111.cmbor of a ach.iamati{:al or h.orotical aoct; and if there ia ndded to this th.a danger of tho falling away of th.a Oath.olic part, GM tho porvcraion of the children., aucb n mnrrioge is forbidden. aJao bT the divine Law.' (Ood. lur. Oan., c. 1000.) H tho Church occn-sionnlly, on account of circumstnnccs, doea not rofuae to grant a. dia-pensntion from these strict lnws (provided thnt the divine Law re-mains intnct nnd the dangers nbove mentioned ore provided againat by suitnblo anfcgunrds), it is unlikely tlmt tho Cntholic party will not suffer some detriment from such n mnrringc. "Wl1ence it comes nbout not unfrequcntly, ns experience ahowt, thnt deplorable defections from religion occur nmong the offspring or nt Jcnst 11 hendlong descent into thnt religious indifference which is closely nUied to impiety. Thero is this nlso to be considered that in these mixed mnrringes it becomes much more difficult to imitate by n lively conformity of spirit the my tcry of which We hove spoken, namely, thnt clo e union between Christ nnd His Church. ".Assuredly nlso will there be wonting thnt close union of apirit which, ns it is the sign nnd mnrk o.f the Church of Chriat, BO alao ahould be the sign of Christian wedlock, its glory 1111d ndommcnt .. • •" B. The Exposition Given by Wm. I. Lonergan, S. J. "A bit of legislation on mixed mnrringcs, promulgatoo by tho Holy Office carly in the year, wns given widc-sprcnd publicity by tho American press, which for the most pnrt miaunderstood or mi.-interpreted it. Ronco o. restatement of tho whole position of tho Cntholic Church in the mnttcr of mixed mnrringcs is timely nnd badly needed. In o. country such ns tho United Stnt-es, which ia largely non-Cntholic nnd where tho t-0ndency to mixed unions is more fre-quent than in places like Frnnce, Italy, Austria, Ireland, Spain, etc., where tho population is mo tly Ontholic, t11ero ia grnve danger lest, misled by nppcnrances, Cntholics moy come to look lightly on mixed marriages or to forget how decisively tho Church condemns them and with whnt reluctance she tolerntcs them, nnd danger, too, that tho Church's position will cnaily be misconatrued by those not of the fold. "Without going t-00 minutely into tho technicalities of Canon Law, a mixed marriage is popularly understood to be the union of a Catholic with one not of the faith. All such unions the Catholic Church severely reprobates, though where tho non-Catholic party has been bapti&ed and is in consequence merely a heretic or achia-matic, the eccleaiaatical prohibition is less aevcro. In this latt.er cue-.. _,,. 2Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 3 [1932], Art. 102https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol3/iss1/102Roman Church Law and llixecl llarrlapa. 7158 C.,,_t11i11g '7tat the proper formalitit:• 1ul11e beeft gone throvg'li. cmd flal there CINI no diriment impedimet1C. 11tanding in tho WIQ' of the co~tract) tho marriage, even if contracted without a diapcnaation, while gravely 11inful, would be valid; whorcn11, under 11imilar con• ditioDS, a marriage bet.ween n Catholic and on unbaptized pcnon would bo absolutoly null nnd void. "Rowovor, notwit1u1tandin9 this didinct-ian. pnpnl document11 em-ploy t1,e •amo J,ar•1i la119ua9e w1,,en. speaking of mized 11iarriagea of either •ort. Thoy ore habitually chnractori,.cd ns 'pc micioua' and 'detestable' unions; something to bo 'abhorred,' 'deplored,' 'abomi-nated.' Becnuso of the grn,,c danger to faith nnd morals alwnya to 110mo extent invoh,ed in them, they may not bo contracted except there bo 'just and weighty reasons.' What cau888 are deemed suf-ficient may bo gaged from the strictness of tho Hierarchy in gr11nt-ing clispenaationa. The good of tho Church or of society or the &Toidnnco of some gra,•e ovil is presupposed. l[ero convenience or ono'11 emotional sntisfaction or puroly material advant-ngcs do not 11ufllco, nod theologians generally ogree that dispensations on such flimsy pretexts would be im•nlid. "Tho Church's legi lntion is bnscd on tho prcaumption that there is a peril in mnrringcs whcro tl1e parties lnck a com1non faith. Dia-cord is almost inovitnblc; for tl1ero callnot boa perfect union of wills and mutual accord under uch ci'rcumstnnccs. Morco,•er, and this i11 of most ecrioua momc11t, thero is nlwaya the possibility of the Catholic party's being weaned nwny from, or weakened in, hia or her belief or of tho ofTapring's llOt boing baptized and brougl1t up in tho truo religion. Ezpori enco pro vu t11at 1011 of I aith and N· ligioua in.differentum aro ofteu ll, o corurcqucncea of mized ma.rriagea. Wboro there is proximate dnnger of this, tho divine Lnw prohibits such unions, nnd so long n the dnnger remains that way, even the Pope cannot allow them. "Tiu, 011.urcli may ,1cvcr par-111,it OatholiCll to marry t11oae of other religioua pro/es um .. ezcept USDEH TUE TWOJo'OLD co.i.,nTION 11,at the Catholic party will be undiaturbotl in tho free czorciao of hi• or her n:ligion. AND THAT ALL Tm: o•·FsrmNO SJJALT, Dt:: DROUOllT ur JN 0ATHOL-JCISll. Wero sho t.o mnrry her children on any othor baaia, she would be faitblcSII to her divine mission nnd to tho matcmal care she should manifest for them. "To insure tho fulfilment of these conditions, ccclo•iaalical law Au long ezacted that bcforo the impediments ariaing from differences in belief bo dispcnaed from, guarantee. be given. by the non-Oatholic party tltat all danger of pcrveraion in bis or her faith will be :re-moved for tho Catholic party 11nd l'LEOOBS DY BOTH P,\RTIES that ALL the children. will be baptued and brought up cmZy in t1ie OatlloZic faith. As an ordinary practise these guarant-ces are t.o be d manded 48 3Engelder: Roman Church Law and Mixed MarriagesPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1932754. Roman Church Law and :111:r:ed llarrlapL in writing. Canon Law also provides that the Catholic IIP01118 l uld endeavor to convert the non-Catholic partner and that the marriqe may not be celebrated before a non-Catholic miniater, but, a:ce,t diocaaan. regulation. provide otherwiao, if dooa not impoae II fo...al promiao on. t1,eae latter points. "It should be noted thnt the non-Catholic's guarantee that tho danger of perversion for the Cntholie party will be removed does not merely mean that no attompt will be mode directly and positive17 to turn the Catholic from the faith, but that nothing will be dona towards bringing this about, even indirectly, as, for example, hJ io-considernto remarks, by n general wny of noting nnd speaking, through one's friends or parents, or tl1rough baneful books. and newapnpers to whoao influence they will expose tho Catholic. "As for the promiaes to educate tho children Catholic, this im-plies not only tl.at t1Ht1J will be baptized, be taught t1ieir pr111er,, be brovgM up to affCJ1d Mau, be prepared for Oonfeuion., OommUKio1', and Confirmation, and, in gmeral, learn the rudimen.ta of nligio1', bvt tliat tl,ey will be ao grounded in t1teir fa.ill, and iu practilea 111.t if may be antici11ated that they will continue ateadfwd. "Obviously these promises ore of mnjor moment. They m111t be honcstly given ond honestly obser,•ed. They cnnnot be a mere for-mality. Theologians, however, until the rec:cnt decree of tho Holy Office, wore commonly ngrecd tlmt, 1>rovidod they were d manded and mode, e,•en if the parties signed t hem in bnd faith, tho insincerity did not nullify the dispensntion; its ,•nlidity wos safeguarded. "Because of tho supremo importance attached to these guaranteel, papal decrees and the Code of Onnen Law both provide that there must be a mornl certainty thnt they will be fulfilled. While obvioualy not easy to have, this was generally got by estimating tho characters and aoriouaneas of the parties being worried. "Tlie forco of tl&e recent l8{Jialation ia tl,at it aims furlAer to aecuro tltia certainty and to remove tlte daugcr of ab au thllt may have accompanied tho making of these promises, particularly as re-gards tl1e Catholic education of tho children. Sometimes even when the guarantees ,vere given in oll honesty, it could ho reasonably fore-seen that despite tho good will of the contracting parties, they would be rendered nugatory because of eh•il lnws prevailing whore they resided or intended to reside. Thus some Protcstnnt countries have legislation that children born of mixed mnrriogca must follow the belief of their parents; if tho father be n Catholic and the mother a non-Catholic, nll the boys would t.ake the father's religion and the girla, the mother's. "To meet this contingency, Rome callJI t1ie attention of tlo,e empowered lo diapenae from impedimenta regarding mized marriagu to their obligation in conacience t1ever to do ao unlua, in. arriving at 4Concordia Theological Monthly, Vol. 3 [1932], Art. 102https://scholar.csl.edu/ctm/vol3/iss1/102!l>tc Oaui,tf &tdftm l!ut"rl In itronotoglf&tcr acttenf•flc. 71Sl5 tle moral ceritJinty about the /uZ/ilment of the Dt&GNnteu, tMJ1 qlao lave regard for the circumat11ncea and con.diUona under w71ic:A tAe ecn&pZe tf1ill find themaeZ11ea. They are instructed that they are not lo accept f/Utlfflnteea tho fulfilment of which can likely be impedecl. apecially by civil mngistratcil or heretical miniaton, by virtue of laws providing for a different armngement regarding th.tt religioua upbringing of cl,ildran and in effect wl1oro tho parties lh•o or are lator going to tnko up their residence. "Tho decrco in no sonso suggests tho nbsurdity commonly reported in tho American prcss that, if tho promiscs nro sincerely given, but lator violated, tho mnrriage, valid in its inception, would subsequently be rondercd null. Nor doca it obligate those granting dispensntiona to make tho 1>romi8C8 legally enforccnble, a procedure of very doubtful value in a country like ours nnd thnt might well serve as n boomerang. It doea forbid tliam., however, if tho law11, bu anticipation, actually tnal:e tlteir obseruance i,npossiblo. Its principal significance is that it Joya stress ognin on the need for moral certainty tlmt the guo.rnntees are going to bo effective by colling nttcntion to one common situation militating against this c.-crtninty. "To empbnsizo its seriousness, tho Holy Office ndds thnt, if the diapensation ba granted wit1iout tliasa guarantee, bein g th.ua aecurad, it [t1te dillpe1 1sation] a1,all bo 'wholly ,wll and -invalid.' As A COROL-LARY, if it bo necessary for tlte validity of a marriago, aa in projected union, betwee n Oa.tl ,ol·ica and llioso ,1ot baptized, th.a marriage itaclf 11/0uld also be null- ,io ,narriogc. In mntrimony, however, between. Catholic, and bavrucrl ,10111-0atltoliCB, wl&cra t1ta dispenaation itaelf i, not euential for validity, t1,a marriago would be valid, BUT GRAVELY SL~FUL ,\ND U,L 1CIT. " ~ie ,t;«u\Jtf djriften .2ut~eri in djranologif djer 9lei~enfalge. !DUt '!lnmrdungrn. (IJorlfrbung.) 1523. .Orbnun1 rlnrl 11rmrlnrn Rattrnl brr QSrmrlnbr au S?rllnig.• - !>Id Ill blc fogcnanntc S?ellnlgcr Rotten~ obrr Rirdicnorbnun1 mlt 11uttrrl IDorrtbc, IDie ble 1rlltlllf)en (!Jilter au tanblaflen linb. !!>le 6cfJrlft rrfcfJlen d Da am lln• lan1 ~ull. 61e fllrtct fo aleml~ aUrl, 1aal 11uttcr bamall tlon clnem ct111at1cn ut,crlf~n RlrcfJrnrelf)t au fa1cn tatte. !!Dir n,Urben blc Si rlft jc,t cthla cine Ronttltutlon nenncn, ba lie aUc !Jlunrtc flctanbd~ blc aur l ufrtittun1 unb Ir• hltung bc l !Jlfarramtl unb cincr cfJrlfllt&trn elf)u1c 1rliiren. !l>lc 1 1titt11ttrn unb {ntmffantcttrn $ara1ra11•rn 1inb bic tton brr !Bcfe!lun1 brr QJcm lnbrllmtcr. 1111 111r CBrmcinbr 1rliirl1 111urbcn gcrrcfJnd .tin jebrr rlrllarer -!Rann, 18Dr1cr unb l!auer, In bcm Rlfitfl)lcl 1110,ntaft11, frln men, unb Rlnbcr, ••• ale (laulgenolfm, !l>lmtt1e1inbc, 4hlai,i,f ~ft bcr (lanb1aede unb anbcrc !lkrf onen, Ivel• nllf)t ,11ul• 114 f,ef clfen unb bocfJ unfem !JlfarrtcfJtc licfJ mlt frtucn•. (St. 1loulfcr llulQak X, SM--977.) 1523. .tion Drbnun1 QJottclbicn!II In brr QJcmelnbc.• - !!>tel tit cine llllll htru EicfJrl~, In ber S?ut,rr aum crttenmal I  flJ!lrmattf&trr !IDclfc bic Clottcl• !llmttorbnun1 flrtanbrlt unb gehlllf e tlorf &tlllge tictreffl bcl Oaui,t1ottcl!llmftcl 5Engelder: Roman Church Law and Mixed MarriagesPublished by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary, 1932

Roman Church Law and Mixed Marriages

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Roman Church Law and Mixed Marriages

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