Why mixed marriages are forbidden

Mixed marriages are forbidden by the natural, divine, and ecclesiastical law. For the parties are ministers to each other of the sacrament of Marriage; but it is unlawful for a Catholic without grave necessity to communicate in religious rites with a non-Catholic, and to receive a sacrament from him. Besides, it usually happens that in marrying a non-Catholic the Catholic party exposes himself to the danger of either losing his faith altogether, or at least of suffering its purity and brightness to be tarnished. The Church has forbidden mixed marriages from the earliest ages, and the Popes and bishops have issued innumerable instructions and warnings against them. It is without doubt a grave sin to contract a mixed marriage without a dispensation, and the Church shows her detestation of it by prohibiting any religious function at the marriage, even when a dispensation for it has been obtained (Can. 1060, 1102).

"... We judge that from marriages of this sort great ruin will be brought upon the Catholic Church. For if the mother, in whose power is the first education of the offspring, is alien from our Sacred rites, what is not to be feared concerning the Religion of the children? For she, solicitously thinking according to maternal love concerning their eternal salvation, will omit no occasion by which she may imbue them with the doctrine of her sect, which she thinks uniquely true. And if she mocks the husband, either fasting on vigils and abstaining from meats, or washing away the stains of his soul in the sacrament of Penance, or approaching the sacred table of the Eucharist, as pursuing empty things, as will happen very often, this also surely must gradually happen, that contempt of most sacred things slip into the minds of the children. But the things which they seize from tender age are most difficult to tear out from their minds.

And conversely, if the mother indeed worships the Catholic religion, but the father, addicted to some Heretical sect, in the sight of the children playfully mocks the sayings and deeds of the wife which pertain to Religion, will not the childish mind of the children, among whom the authority of the father has very great force, have doubted somewhat concerning the truth of the Religion which the mother follows? What if a serious dispute about Religion arises between husband and wife? Will not the children, whose mind, amid the alternating moments in the dispute of the parents, is driven this way and that, gradually slip into indifference of Religion, than which nothing is more deadly, nothing more hostile to Religion, since it utterly removes every Religion, true or false? That too is manifest, that by these marriages a more open field is opened to Lutheran heresy, by which it can diffuse itself more widely. For girls imbued with Lutheran error, to whom now it is lawful to establish domicile with their husbands only in certain particular places, if they have married Catholic men, must follow them wherever it has pleased them to dwell. Besides, the new bride will admit several persons of her sect into the family of the husband; nor can Ministers of the false sect, who come to her for the sake of greeting her, be prohibited from his house. These indeed will not be wanting in their ministry, by which they confirm their sheep in error, and they will suggest to the mother the art by which, in the minds of the children, the seeds of good doctrine may dry up from the very time when they begin to spring forth.

Therefore the zeal of Catholics used up to now will have been in vain, by which the errors condemned by the Church are eliminated from these regions which they hold, when in the future it will have been permitted with impunity to profess that same poisonous doctrine in the midst of those Catholics. To this is added that if either of the spouses, who is Catholic, dies and leaves children in first age, it will be free to the other Heretical spouse to infect his or her children with the poisonous sentiments of the sect. You see therefore, Our beloved Son, what the Catholic religion can promise itself concerning the offspring received from these marriages, and whether it is to be greatly feared lest through those unions by which they intend to propagate the Catholic faith, heresy be propagated more widely; and, what is most dreadful of all, that indifference of whatever Religion may take greater forces day by day, by which, for the most part, access is opened to impiety...." Clement XIII, 16 Nov. 1763, to the Bishop of Argerotan.

"... Therefore the following matters seemed to you worthy of explanation. And first, you ask what is to be understood by the words by which, in the praised Instruction, the faculty or tolerance of blessing mixed marriages is supported and as it were bound, namely, to avoid graver evils and damages. Without doubt graver evils and damages arise therefrom: 1. Whenever, because the blessing is denied to mixed marriages, complaints and hatreds of Heretics against the faithful and against ecclesiastical laws would easily be excited. 2. Whenever, the blessing having been denied by the Catholic Parish Priest, the spouses, before or after the marriage celebrated before him, approach a petty Minister, or even come together in a temple of Heterodox persons, to obtain a sacrilegious blessing, the Catholic Parish Priest being altogether set aside. 3. Whenever besides it would be feared that, the blessing sought by them having been refused, either the necessary cautions concerning removing the danger of perversion from the Catholic spouse and concerning educating all the offspring in the Catholic Religion would not be observed, or, what would be more detestable, lest the Catholic party pass over to the camp of the Heretics, to the eternal destruction of himself and the future offspring. Evidently these and like things are those grave damages and evils, to avoid which the Supreme Pontiff declared that it could be indulged, or tolerated, that in mixed marriages the nuptial blessing be imparted. Therefore by these things an easy and correct interpretation and practice of the Instruction offers itself to all Apostolic Vicars.

Whence also from the things said the response to the second is clear. For immediately, by attending to the aforesaid matters, anxieties and doubts will vanish concerning a not correct and therefore discrepant interpretation of the Instruction, and its application to practical cases or events. But whenever, because of the notable distance of places, Prelates cannot by themselves know the gravity and truth of the causes and circumstances concerning mixed marriages to be honored with the Priestly blessing, they will be able to fulfill these same things through Missionaries subject to them, who nevertheless are very well instructed concerning the aforesaid causes and the Instruction, endowed with prudence and zeal according to knowledge.

Those things which in the third place made you anxious concerning silence and secrecy, inculcated in the praised Instruction as far as possible, do not seem to be understood so strictly that this indulgence, or rather toleration, of the Holy See in blessing mixed nuptials becomes known to no one. For you should know that His Holiness wished the Prelates to be warned, that the blessing not be imparted indiscriminately and without selection to mixed marriages; nor that they use such a faculty by public instructions, as if also by way of rule, but very prudently and cautiously, so that the most salutary conditions of the Church, which are always understood to be implicitly joined to such dispensations, are not handed over to oblivion. Surely that there is no other mind of the Supreme Pontiff will be clear to A. T. and the other Apostolic Vicars, if you attend to those things which are contained in the apostolic Letters in the form of a Brief given to the Bishop of Trier on 3 October 1853 concerning this matter. The Supreme Pontiff Pius IX, after he indulged to the Ordinary of Trier that, when the causes already commemorated above concur, the blessing could be imparted to mixed marriages, proceeds in this way: These conditions indeed (outside the church and without the blessing of the Parish Priest) especially look to this, that in the minds of Catholics the memory of the Canons which detest these unions never be forgotten, and of that most constant zeal by which Holy Mother Church has been accustomed to avert her children from the same nuptials being contracted to the destruction of their future offspring.

Therefore from the things said a certain norm is proposed to you and to the other Apostolic Vicars for correctly interpreting and reducing to practice those things which are handed down in the Instruction of Cardinal Antonelli concerning the blessing to be given to mixed nuptials.

Finally, to the questions which A. T. also proposed to be solved as consectary, the Sacred Congregation judged that response should be made thus: The practice of Missionaries is by no means to be disapproved, by which, in order to detect the fraud of Heretics who, their own wife having been rejected, would presume to be joined with a Catholic woman, among other investigations, their banns are published, yet with no mention made of the religion of those who are about to contract the nuptials.

But as to the doubt: Can the Sacraments be given to the Catholic party prepared in mind to go before a Protestant Minister either before or after the Catholic marriage? It will have to be attended whether the spouses approach the Protestant Minister so that they may satisfy only civil law, or truly so that they may communicate in sacred rites. If this second, since the Heterodox Minister assists as one devoted to sacred rites, and the Catholic party persists in his depraved intention, he cannot be admitted to the participation of the Sacraments until, by drawing back from the depraved purpose, he truly comes to his senses. Concerning this matter it will be opportune to consult Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, book VI, ch. VII, § 2.

Lastly it was asked: Whether the Catholic party is to be admitted, who contracted marriage with a Heretic and before a petty Minister, yet validly by force of the Benedictine extension for Holland, to the renewal of mutual consent before the Parish Priest or Catholic Missionary, who could also recite the formula: I join you...? Moreover, whether spouses converted from heresy, who insistently ask this, can be admitted to the same renewal of consent? In places in which marriages of Heretics among themselves, or between one Catholic party and another Heterodox party, are valid even when the Tridentine form has not been observed, provided that no other Canonical impediment has stood in the way, the spouses cannot be admitted to marriage, already indissoluble in itself, as if to be contracted anew by words expressing mutual consent de praesenti; nor will the formula, I join you in matrimony, be recited by the Priest. Nevertheless, if there is question of mixed marriages already contracted before a Heretical Minister, insofar as the cautions necessary by law have been supplied, and the Catholic party, repentant of the fact, asks for the blessing, it will be able to be imparted to that person, with absolution from censures first given, and salutary penances imposed, yet always with the celebration of Mass excluded. Likewise also to spouses converted from heresy, provided that they ask, the nuptial blessing is to be imparted in Mass. But the Parish Priest, in any case whatsoever, should teach the spouses together that a blessing of this sort pertains only to the rite, not to the validity, of the marriage." S. O., S. C. de P. F., 4 Dec. 1862.

“...We judge that great ruin will be brought upon the Catholic Church by unions of this kind. For if the mother, with whom the first education of the offspring rests, is alien to our sacred rites, what is not to be feared concerning the religion of the children? For she, solicitously considering their eternal salvation according to her maternal love, will omit no occasion by which she may imbue them with the doctrine of her sect, which she regards as alone true. And if, as will very frequently happen, she mocks her husband as though he were pursuing empty things when he fasts and abstains from meat on vigils, or washes away the stains of his soul in the Sacrament of Penance, or approaches the sacred table of the Eucharist, it must certainly also happen little by little that contempt for the most sacred things will glide into the minds of the children. But the things which they seize upon from a tender age are most difficult to uproot from their minds.

“And conversely, if the mother indeed practices the Catholic religion but the father is attached to some heretical sect and playfully mocks, in the sight of the children, the words and deeds of his wife which pertain to religion, will not the childish mind of the children, for whom the authority of the father has very great weight, begin to doubt somewhat concerning the truth of the religion which the mother follows? What if a serious dispute about religion arises between husband and wife? Will not the children, whose mind is driven this way and that by the alternating arguments in their parents’ dispute, gradually fall into religious indifferentism, than which nothing is more deadly, nothing more hostile to religion, since it utterly destroys every religion, whether true or false? It is also evident that by these unions a wider field is opened to the Lutheran heresy in which it can spread itself more broadly. For girls imbued with Lutheran error, who now are permitted to establish a domicile with their husbands only in certain places, if they marry Catholic men, must follow them wherever it pleases them to dwell. Moreover, the newly married woman will admit more persons of her sect into the husband’s household; nor can the ministers of the false sect, who visit her for the sake of greeting her, be prohibited from his house. They surely will not fail in their ministry, by which they confirm their sheep in error and suggest to the mother the art by which the seeds of good doctrine may wither in the minds of the children from the very time when they begin to spring forth.

“Therefore, the effort hitherto employed by Catholics to eliminate from these regions which they hold the errors condemned by the Church will have been in vain, since it will thereafter be lawful with impunity to profess the same poisonous doctrine in the midst of those same Catholics. To this is added that if either spouse who is Catholic dies, leaving children in their earliest age, the other, heretical spouse will be free to infect those children with the poisonous opinions of that spouse’s sect. You see, therefore, Our beloved son, what the Catholic religion can promise itself concerning the offspring born of these unions, and whether it is not greatly to be feared that through the unions by which they intend to propagate the Catholic faith, heresy may be propagated more widely; and, what is worst of all, that religious indifferentism, by which an entrance is very often opened to impiety, may acquire greater strength day by day....” Clement XIII, 16 November 1763, to the Bishop of Argerota. Cf. C. 1426.

“...Therefore, the following matters seemed to you worthy of explanation. And first, you ask what is to be understood by the words upon which, in the praised Instruction, the faculty or tolerance of blessing mixed Marriages rests and, as it were, is bound, namely, for avoiding graver evils and injuries. Without doubt, graver evils and injuries arise therefrom: 1. Whenever, because a blessing has been denied to mixed Marriages, the complaints and hatred of heretics against the faithful and the ecclesiastical laws would easily be stirred up.—2. Whenever, after the blessing has been denied by the Catholic parish priest, the betrothed parties, before or after the Marriage celebrated before him, approach a petty minister, or even come together in a church of the heterodox to obtain a sacrilegious blessing, the Catholic parish priest being altogether set aside.—3. Whenever, moreover, it would have to be feared that, if the blessing sought by them were refused, either the necessary cautions concerning removal of the danger of perversion from the Catholic spouse and the education of all the offspring in the Catholic religion would not be observed, or, what would be more detestable, the Catholic party might pass over to the camp of the heretics, to the eternal ruin of that party and of the future offspring. Evidently, these and similar things are those grave injuries and evils for avoiding which the Supreme Pontiff declared that it could be granted or tolerated that the nuptial blessing be imparted in mixed Marriages. Through these things, therefore, an easy and correct interpretation and practice of the Instruction offers itself to all Vicars Apostolic.

“Hence the response to the second matter is also evident from what has been said. For immediately, by attending to the things said above, anxieties and doubts will vanish concerning an incorrect and therefore discordant interpretation of the Instruction and its application to practical cases or events. But whenever, on account of the considerable distance of places, the Prelates cannot by themselves ascertain the gravity and truth of the causes and circumstances concerning mixed Marriages to be honored with a priestly blessing, they will be able to accomplish these same things through missionaries subject to them, who nevertheless are to be excellently instructed concerning the aforesaid causes and Instruction and endowed with prudence and zeal according to knowledge.

“The matters which in the third place made you anxious concerning the silence and secrecy inculcated in the praised Instruction insofar as possible do not seem to be understood so strictly that this indulgence—or rather tolerance—of the Holy See in blessing mixed nuptials is to become known to no one. For you ought to know that His Holiness wished the Prelates to be admonished that the blessing should not be imparted indiscriminately and without discretion to mixed Marriages, nor should they use such a faculty through public instructions as though by way of a rule, but very prudently and cautiously, lest the most salutary conditions of the Church, which are always understood to be implicitly joined to such dispensations, be handed over to oblivion. Certainly it will be clear to Your Amplitude and to the other Vicars Apostolic that the mind of the Supreme Pontiff is no other, if you attend to the things contained in the Apostolic Letter in the form of a Brief given to the Bishop of Trier on 3 October 1853 concerning this matter. After the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX granted to the Ordinary of Trier that, when the causes already mentioned above concurred, a blessing could be imparted to mixed Marriages, he continued in this manner: These conditions (outside the church and without the blessing of the parish priest) principally have this purpose: that there may never be effaced from the minds of Catholics the memory of the canons which detest these unions and of that most constant solicitude by which Holy Mother Church has been accustomed to turn her children from contracting those same nuptials to the ruin of their future offspring.

“From what has been said, therefore, a certain norm is proposed to you and to the other Vicars Apostolic for rightly interpreting and reducing to practice the things handed down in the Instruction of Cardinal Antonelli concerning the blessing to be given to mixed nuptials.

“Finally, to the questions which Your Amplitude also proposed as though consequential ones to be resolved, the Sacred Congregation judged that response should be made as follows: The practice of missionaries is by no means to be disapproved, whereby, in order to uncover the fraud of heretics who, after rejecting their own wife, might presume to unite with a Catholic woman, among the other investigations their banns are published, but without any mention being made of the religion of those who are to contract the nuptials.

“But with regard to the doubt: Can the Sacraments be given to the Catholic party who is disposed in mind to contract before a Protestant minister, either before or after the Catholic Marriage?—It will have to be considered whether the betrothed parties approach the Protestant minister merely in order to satisfy civil law, or rather in order to communicate in sacred rites. If the latter, since the heterodox minister assists in his capacity as one devoted to sacred rites, and the Catholic party persists in that party’s depraved intention, the Catholic party cannot be admitted to participation in the Sacraments until, by withdrawing from the depraved purpose, that party truly comes to repentance. Concerning this matter it will be useful to consult Benedict XIV, On the Diocesan Synod, book 6, chapter 7, § 2.

“Lastly, it was asked: Is the Catholic party who contracted Marriage with a heretic and before a petty minister—validly, however, by virtue of the extension granted by Benedict XIV for Holland—to be admitted to a renewal of mutual consent before the Catholic parish priest or missionary, who might also recite the formula: I join you together...? Moreover, can spouses converted from heresy who urgently request it be admitted to the same renewal of consent?—In places in which Marriages contracted either between heretics themselves or between one Catholic party and another heterodox party are valid even when the Tridentine form has not been observed—provided that no other canonical impediment has stood in the way—the spouses cannot be admitted to a Marriage, already indissoluble of itself, as though it were to be contracted anew through words expressing mutual present consent, nor is the formula, I join you together in Matrimony, to be recited by the priest. Nevertheless, if the question concerns mixed Marriages already contracted before a heretical minister, insofar as the cautions necessary by law were given and the Catholic party, repenting of the deed, requests the blessing, it can be imparted to that party after absolution from censures has first been given and salutary penances imposed, but the celebration of Mass must always be excluded. Likewise, the nuptial blessing is also to be imparted in Mass to spouses converted from heresy, provided that they request it. But in every case let the parish priest thoroughly instruct the spouses that a blessing of this kind pertains only to the rite, not to the validity of the union.” Holy Office and Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 4 December 1862.

531. Another and indeed disastrous danger of perversion in faith is mixed marriages, of which Pius IX says: "All know what the Catholic Church herself has constantly thought about marriages of this kind between Catholics and non-Catholics, since she has always disapproved them and held them as illicit and plainly pernicious, both on account of shameful communication in divine things, and on account of the impending danger of perversion for the Catholic spouse, and on account of the depraved education of offspring."⁸³ - But to avoid greater evils, e.g. concubinage, Holy Mother Church sometimes tolerates mixed marriages, certain cautions having been employed by which the proximate danger of perversion is removed. About these cautions (which are: a serious and trustworthy promise that all offspring to be born be educated in the Catholic faith, and that the Catholic party be able freely to exercise his or her religion) there will be a broader discussion in the treatise on marriage, III 784 sqq.

The Church by her laws established the following for preventing mixed marriages between Catholics and non-Catholics: a) marriage between a Catholic and a non-baptized unbeliever is null (the diriment impediment of disparity of cult); b) marriage between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic is gravely illicit (the prohibiting impediment of mixed religion), unless a legitimate dispensation has preceded; c) if, after marriage has already been contracted, one spouse falls away from the true faith and slips into heresy or apostasy, divorce as to bed and habitation is permitted.⁸⁴ He who enters a mixed marriage without due dispensation of the Church or without the due cautions being seriously furnished sins gravely and is excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical acts (e.g. from the function of sponsor) and sacramentals;^84a but he who enters such a marriage before a non-Catholic minister incurs excommunication reserved to the Ordinary.⁸⁵

Note. In some regions there exists a laudable use that every year on the Sunday when the Gospel about the wedding at Cana is read, a special instruction be had for the Christian people about the dangers of mixed marriage. Confessors and pastors of souls should strive to deter the faithful from mixed marriages and in giving religious instructions should often speak about the dangers of those marriages.⁸⁶

⁸³ Instruction, November 15, 1858 (Collect. de Prop. Fide n. 1169).

⁸⁴ Cod. iur. can. c. 1131, § 1.

^84a Ib. c. 2375.

⁸⁵ Ib. c. 2319, § 1, n. 1.

⁸⁶ Ib. c. 1064.

785. Morality of mixed matrimony. A mixed matrimony is sometimes prohibited by natural and divine law itself,²⁵ namely, when a) there arises for the Catholic party a proximate danger of perversion and especially of losing the faith; b) the offspring to be born will not be educated in the Catholic faith, or even if their education will be neglected; c) there is communication in sacred things with heretics, made without an urgent cause. For the Catholic party administers the sacrament of matrimony to the heretic, which certainly is not lawful without an urgent reason.²⁶ Hence Gregory XVI, in a letter to the Archbishop of Fribourg on May 23, 1846, declared: "It is known and established that Catholics (whether men or women) who rashly contract mixed nuptials and cast themselves and the offspring to be received therefrom into danger of perversion sin against natural and divine law." From these things it is evident that no one (not even the Supreme Pontiff) can dispense so that a Catholic may licitly contract a mixed matrimony unless every proximate danger of perversion both for the contracting party himself and for the offspring to be born is avoided.²⁷ But if such a danger has been eliminated, then a mixed matrimony can be licit when a dispensation of the Church is added. Hence those authors who teach that mixed matrimony is always gravely illicit and is only tolerated by the Church, just as the Church also tolerates other evils under compulsion, seem to speak more severely than is fitting. In practice, however, even when a dispensation of the Church has been obtained, mixed marriages are often gravely illicit, because every danger of spiritual harm for the Catholic party and for the future offspring quite rarely ceases.

²⁵ Code of Canon Law, can. 1060.

²⁶ Leo XIII speaks most excellently concerning mixed marriages (Constitution Arcanum, February 10, 1880): "It can scarcely be hoped that minds dissenting concerning the discipline of religion will be in concord concerning other things. Indeed, it is especially clear that marriages of this kind are to be abhorred because they furnish occasion for forbidden association and communication in sacred things, create danger for the religion of the Catholic spouse, are an impediment to the good instruction of children, and very often impel minds to grow accustomed to holding all religions in equal regard, with the distinction of truth and falsity removed."

²⁷ In the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the evil practice was permitted by some bishops that in mixed marriages boys be educated in the religion of the father, but girls in the religion of the mother. But the Supreme Pontiffs Benedict XIV, Pius VI, Pius VIII, and Gregory XVI vigorously opposed this practice, which so gravely conflicts with divine law.

867. Principle III. Mixed religion prohibits matrimony from being entered between two baptized persons, of whom one is Catholic, but the other enrolled in a heretical or schismatic sect. - Thus from can. 1060.

Mixed religion (religion mixte; gemengde godsdienst) is:

1° between two baptized persons: for if one is baptized in the Catholic Church, the other not baptized, there is the impediment of disparity of worship; on the contrary, if one is baptized outside the Catholic Church, the other not baptized, no impediment is had;

2° of whom one is Catholic, namely, baptized in order to the Catholic Church or converted to it;

3° but the other enrolled in a heretical or schismatic sect: for it does not suffice that he belongs to a non-religious sect; nevertheless among non-Catholic sects here are counted also atheistic sects (com. int., July 30, 1934). Hence one is considered Catholic who, although he has externally cast off the Catholic faith, has not yet been enrolled in a non-Catholic sect; and therefore he is not held by the canonical impediment when he wishes to enter matrimony with a Catholic woman, but he is held if with one enrolled in a heretical or schismatic or atheistic sect.

Mixed matrimony, as it is customarily called, 1 is not only always an impediment of ecclesiastical law, which "the Church most severely prohibits everywhere" and already from ancient times; but also for the most part an impediment of natural and divine law, on account of communication in sacred things which it imports, or scandal which it easily gives, especially on account of the danger of perversion in faith and morals for the Catholic party and for the offspring to be born. Hence can. 1060 adds: "but if danger of perversion is present for the Catholic spouse and the offspring, the union is forbidden even by divine law itself."

It can nevertheless be licit from dispensation of the Supreme Pontiff, if grave and just causes urge and provided the danger of perversion both of the Catholic party and of the offspring is removed: for the law of the Church prohibiting it is taken away by dispensation, but the natural and divine law ceases to urge if the proximate danger is removed and at the same time a grave reason is present sufficient to make honorable the communication in sacred things. Therefore there is required:

1° Dispensation, and indeed of the Pontiff, to whom, namely, it is reserved, although sometimes it is delegated to a bishop.

2° Just and grave causes, proportionate, namely, to the evil and danger to which such a matrimony exposes one. Such are: the good of the Christian commonwealth, fear of civil matrimony or before a non-Catholic minister, founded hope of conversion of the non-Catholic party, offspring to be legitimated or well educated, scandal or infamy to be avoided.

3° Sufficient removal of danger, as the natural law requires, in which no one has power to dispense. For this the Church requires cautions, because she does not dispense unless

a) the non-Catholic spouse has given caution concerning removing from the Catholic spouse the danger of perversion,

b) each spouse has given caution concerning all offspring to be born - but not concerning offspring already born, as is drawn from the decree of the Holy Office, Jan. 16, 1942 - that they are to be baptized and educated only as Catholics. Those cautions indeed must be given explicitly for liceity, but for validity at least implicitly, i.e., by acts from which it must be concluded, and can be established in the external forum, that the spouses know the obligation of fulfilling the conditions and have manifested a firm purpose of satisfying that obligation (Response of the Holy Office, May 10, 1941).

c) moral certitude must be had concerning the fulfillment of the cautions; for which a bare promise of itself does not suffice.

Thus according to can. 1061, which adds: "cautions regularly are to be demanded in writing," and indeed before dispensation is sought. Indeed in regions in which cautions also have force in the civil forum, provided they are given in civil form, dispensation is not to be conceded unless the cautions have been given in the indicated form; otherwise, namely, a dispensation conceded by those who dispense from indult is invalid (Holy Office, Jan. 20, 1932).

Cautions are always to be demanded, even in danger of death (can. 1043; instr., Nov. 15, 1858; Holy Office, March 18, 1891); otherwise those dispensing from delegation dispense invalidly (can. 1043 and 1061; Holy Office, June 21, 1912 and Jan. 14, 1932). The case is excepted in which, for convalidating matrimony, there is need of sanation in the root, which sometimes is conceded under certain conditions, even if the non-Catholic party does not wish to give the cautions.

1. Ter Haar has written excellently: De matrimoniis mixtis eorumque remediis.

868. Obligations connected with mixed matrimony are recalled to memory by the code of law, and the Catholic spouse is to be warned concerning them:

1° "The Catholic spouse is held by the obligation of prudently taking care of the conversion of the non-Catholic spouse," can. 1062.

2° "Even if a dispensation over the impediment of mixed religion has been obtained from the Church, the spouses cannot, either before or after matrimony entered before the Church, also approach, whether by themselves or through a procurator, a non-Catholic minister as one devoted to sacred things, for giving or renewing matrimonial consent," can. 1063, § 1.

"Nevertheless it is not disapproved that, when the civil law commands it, the spouses stand also before a non-Catholic minister, acting only in the office of a civil official, and this solely for completing the civil act, for the sake of civil effects," can. 1063, § 3.

869. Offices of the pastor. - According to can. 1064: "Ordinaries and other pastors of souls:

1° Let them deter the faithful from mixed nuptials, as much as they can.

2° If they cannot impede them, let them take care with every zeal lest they be contracted against the laws of God and of the Church.

3° When mixed nuptials have been celebrated either in their own or in another territory, let them watch carefully that the spouses faithfully fulfill the promises made.

4° Those assisting at matrimony shall observe the prescription of can. 1102," i.e., they should make the interrogations by which they request and receive the consent of the contracting parties, but abstain from every sacred rite, unless the Ordinary has permitted one for avoiding graver evils, the celebration of Mass always being excluded (n. 852, C).

Nevertheless, "if the pastor knows certainly that the spouses will violate or have already violated this law (of not approaching a non-Catholic minister for giving or renewing matrimonial consent), let him not assist at their matrimony, unless from most grave causes, scandal having been removed and the Ordinary first consulted," can. 1063, § 2. A most grave cause can be the danger of invalid matrimony or of apostasy of the Catholic party or of the education of offspring in heresy.

Let it be permitted to add certain practical points:

a) As regards the dispensation to be conceded, not only the private good of the contracting parties is to be attended to, but especially the common good. And therefore in certain regions there can legitimately exist a practice of rarely conceding dispensation, if this is an efficacious means of generally impeding mixed unions; as also the practice of not conceding dispensation unless after the non-Catholic party has completed an entire course of instruction in Catholic doctrine; - but never to dispense would be against the mind of the Church.

b) If someone without a just cause wishes to enter a mixed matrimony, he sins gravely, and similarly if he almost extorts dispensation by causing fear lest he enter matrimony without dispensation; hence of himself he is unworthy of absolution.

c) From a dispensation conceded there does not always follow full liceity of matrimony. For the Church by prudent counsel sometimes permits lesser evils and dangers of perversion, in order to avoid greater ones, such as apostasy from the faith or long abiding in civil matrimony.

d) A Catholic who illicitly entered mixed matrimony cannot be absolved unless he truly repents and sincerely promises all the cautions required on his part. But if he invalidly contracted mixed matrimony, for example, on account of defect of form, and now truly repents, it must be seen whether the matrimony is to be convalidated or on the contrary whether there is to be abstention from convalidation, as if complete dissolution is to be preferred or civil divorce is foreseen; - otherwise care must be taken that it be convalidated: by renewed consent after due cautions have been given, if possible, or, if the non-Catholic party refuses this, by sanation in the root, provided the Catholic party promises that he will provide according to his powers for the Catholic education of all offspring. But the Catholic party cannot be admitted to the sacraments unless matrimony has been convalidated, or complete separation has been carried out.

e) In doubt concerning the validity of the Baptism of the non-Catholic party, for caution let dispensation be sought not only from the impediment of mixed religion, but also from disparity of worship.

870. Penalties established against transgressors are the following:

A. "Catholics who have dared to enter mixed matrimony, even validly, without dispensation of the Church, remain by the fact itself excluded from legitimate ecclesiastical and sacramental acts until they have obtained dispensation from the Ordinary," can. 2375.

B. "The following Catholics fall under excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Ordinary:

1° Those who enter matrimony before a non-Catholic minister.

2° Those who are joined in matrimony with a pact, explicit or implicit, that all or some offspring be educated outside the Catholic Church.

3° Those who knowingly presume to offer their children to non-Catholic ministers to be baptized.

4° Parents or those holding the place of parents who knowingly hand over children to be educated or instructed in a non-Catholic religion," can. 2319, § 1.

C. "Those of whom in n. 2-4 are besides suspected of heresy," can. 2319, § 2. Hence if, after being admonished, they do not remove the cause of suspicion, they are to be prohibited from legitimate acts; but if within six complete months from the contracted penalty they have not amended themselves, they are to be held as heretics, subject to the penalties of heretics (can. 2315), among which is excommunication specially reserved to the Holy See.