The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-08-12


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In a recent issue of a local paper
1t was stated that Catholic was mar
rled to non-Catholic, first before a
Catholic priest, and then later the
ceremony was repeated before Prot
estant minister. Does the Church
sanction such a proceeding?
The Church forbids her children to
marry those who are not of the Faith.
This is her own positive law, made
for reasons good and sufficient that
we presume are evident to all; peace
and unity in the family, preservation
of the Faith, the more ready observ-
ance of the moral law, the eternal
salvation of parents and children.
For grave reasons, rather than delib-
erately to cut off from the tree of
salvation one of her members, the
Church makes an exception to her
own law and allows a Catholic to
marry a non-Catholic. Even in this
case certain conditions are first re-
Quired which must be accepted by
both the Catholic and the non-Catholic.
One of these conditions is that the
Catholic will be particularly faithful
to the practice of his religion, another
is that the non-Catholic will not inter
fere with the. Catholic in the practice
of his religion and that he will agree
to have any children born of the mar
riage baptized and brought up in the
Catholic Faith.
In the case proposed these condi-
tions must have been accepted before
the priest would witness to the mar
riage. But, as too often happens, the
promises readily given we're probably
even more quickly forgotten. If the
two persons did not make the prom
Uses in good faith that is, intending
to fulfill them, the dispensation from
the law of the Church was obtained
under false pretenses; and if the Cath
Ollie at the time of his marriage before
the priest had made any agreement to
go afterwards to a Protestant minis
ter, he was evidently guilty of sacri-
lege by going through the marriage
ceremony before the priest when he
knew he was in mortal sin.
The appearance of the Catholic be-
fore a Protestant minister, for the pur-
pose of receiving a sacrament, was
a denial of his faith an approval of
false worship and the sin of sacrilege.
And such ceremony was entirely void
of any sacramento effect. The denial
of his faith is evident from the act
of a Catholic going before one not of
the Faith to receive a sacrament His
faith tells him, that the Church is
the sole guardian of the sacraments,
but by his act he denies this, attempt
ing to receive the sacrament of matri-
mony before a Protestant minister.
BY doing this he gave his approval to
what he knew to be false worship
the worship, namely, that was follow.
ed by the Protestant minister. The
sin of sacrilege was added to the other
sins, because he abused the sacra-
ment of matrimony, attempting to re,
ceive it when he knew that he was
in mortal sin. Furthermore, he could
not be married before the Protestant
minister, nor before any other than a
Catholic priest. He might go through
the marriage ceremony before another
person, but the ceremony would not
confer the sacrament of matrimony
The explanation of this is in the in
stitution of the sacraments and in the
legislation of the Church. Christ in
stituted the sacraments, making mar
riage also a sacrament. He confide6
all of them, and so matrimony, to the
care, the exclusive care, of His Church
1t rests with the Church then to ex
ercise this care, to make laws that
will govern the administration and re
ception of these sacramento. Hel
laws concerning matrimony are full
fillment of this obligation, imposed
upon her by her divine Founder
Jesus Christ. One of these laws
states that no one who was baptized
a Catholic can receive the sacrament
of matrimony except before a priest
and two witnesses. Marriage as we
have stated, was raised by Christ tC
the dignity of a sacrament. A Cath
Ollie evidently comes under this legis
lation of the Church and is thereby
prohibited from marriage except I'm
der the conditions specified; that is
before priest and two witnesses
The prohibition makes any attempt al
marriage under other circumstances
such as in the case proposed, going
before a Protestant minister, not only
illicit and sacrilegious, but absolutely
void. To live thereafter as though
married would be for the Catholic tc
live in sin.
Is Il a sin to gamble?
To gamble means to risk money OF
other goods on some game of chance
or other uncertain event. A person is
free, if he so chooses, to make a pres
ent of his money or other goods to
another, provided by doing so he does
no injustice to others by disposing OF
that to which they have prior claim
Very often it happens that man is
so situated. In such case, so fan
as the act itself of gambling is con
cerned, the man would be free to risk
in some game of chance, or on some
other uncertainty, the money that he
could afford to give away. In order
that equity might exist in the game
it would be necessary that there would