The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-12-07
Letter OF Bishop Wehrle
MIXED MARRIAGES.
CONTINUED from last week.

| CONTINUED from last week
4. 1t is necessary to examine into
the good and serious reasons for dis
pensing in the case of mixed mar.
riages.
There is one truly good reason,
namely true and well founded hope
! that the n-Catholic may accept the
true faith. There may be circum-
stances where the non-Catholic cannot
be sufficiently instructed as to be re-
| ceived into the Church before the mar
riage takes place; there are hundreds
Of well-meaning non-Catholics anxious
for the truth and giving the best hope
that they will finally become fervent
Catholics after they have worked
themselves through their difficulties
In such a case there is sufficient and
good reason for dispensation.
But let Catholic young ladies be-
ware of men who for the sake of mar
! riage talk in the sweetest way about
! their willingness to seek the truth,
| but show in other ways that they are
/ totally worldly and have no religious
! oCll0Cs " z nave lOO CdSSS WHSIC
before marriage the non-Catholic was
very willing to sign the promises re-
quired by Holy Church, and a few
days afterwards made it most difficult
to the Catholic wife to practice her
religion and later on acted like a
tyrant when his wife wanted the chill
dren to be baptized. 1t is a supreme
happiness to be Gods instrument in
giving the natural life to human be-
ing; but for any Catholic who is not
absolutely dead to the Catholic faith
it is a supreme agony to know ones
own children growing up without bap-
tism and without the true faith, with
out the knowledge of Christ's love for
us and without those greatest tokens
of Christ's love, the Sacrifice of Mass,
Holy Communion, the Sacrament of
Penance and all the other means of
grace which Jesus Christ has deposit
ed in His Church and which cannot
be found outside of it.
Jesus Christ said to the Jews that
for the hardness of heart God per-
mitted divorce in the Old Testament,
but in the beginning it was not so. We
must say that the largest number of
serious reasons for granting dispen-
sation for mixed marriages come also
from the hardness of heart. Dispen-
sation is usually granted because there
is danger of a merely civil marriage if
such dispensation should not be given;
or because the Catholic party has al
ready become so infatuated as rather
to give up ones Catholic faith than
give up the chosen person
Parents of young people and young
people themselves should often ask
themselves the question whether they
have right to expect Gods blessing
for a matrimonial union that in it's be-
ginning is tainted with hardness of
heart. If they would frequently give
serious thought to this question, your
Bishop would not so often be asked to
secure dispensation for mixed mar
riages.
5. In order to bring Catholics who
intend to marry to fuller understand
ing of their duty in regard to mixed
marriages we prescribe that this pas
toral letter be we'll distributed among
our Catholics and that young people
who are in danger of entering mixed
marriage be urged to read and study
! it.
We also beg the pastors to do their
very best to induce non-Catholics who
intend to marry Catholics to receive
from the pastors at least four or five
instructions on the principal truths
and commandments of the Holy
Church before they ask dispensation
for a mixed marriage.
The purpose of these instructions is
not to lead them directly or indirectly
into the Catholic Church, but to make
known to them our holy religion, in
such a way that they can reasonably
| Judge whether they can in truth and
honesty and without doing violence to
their own religious convictions make
the promises demanded from non
Catholics before dispensation is grant
ed and afterwards faithfully keep
them. They should be admonished,
rather, to abandon the idea of marry
! ing Catholic than to make promises
which are contrary to their conyic-
tons.
| CONTINUED next week.