MATRIMONY 207 



P) The Church earnestly warns her children 

 against mixed marriages. Except for the grav- 

 est of reasons no sensible Catholic will marry a 

 person belonging to another religion. The nature 

 and purpose of marriage demand true piety and 

 virtue in both parties, in order that they may as- 

 sist and sanctify each other. 15 The Catholic, 

 therefore, who knowingly and willingly marries a 

 person having no religious or moral convictions, 

 or a false religion, commits a sin and is guilty 

 of an immoral act. There can be no true unity 

 of mind and heart, no harmony between hus- 

 band and wife, least of all in the upbringing 

 of children, if they differ in this most essential 

 matter of religious belief. But the Church's op- 

 position to mixed marriages rests on a more 

 important consideration even than that. She re- 

 gards the Sacrament of Matrimony as a symbol 

 of Christ's union with His Church 16 and a nurs- 

 ery of souls. Hence she is perfectly justified in 

 disapproving of mixed marriages and permit- 

 ting them only with reluctance and under certain 

 well defined conditions. 17 



b) Preparation. — As the reception of this 



15 Cfr. 1 Thess. IV, 3-7; 1 Tim. Notre Dame, Ind., 4th ed., 1917; G 

 II, is; i Pet. Ill, 1-7. Schlachter, C.PP.S., Mixed Mar 



16 Eph. V, 22-23; cfr. 1 Cor. VII, riages, Collegeville, Ind., 1915; W 

 39; Col. Ill, 18. — P. Schanz, Die Fanning, S.J., in the Catholic En 

 Lehre von den hi. Sakramenten, pp. cyclopedia, Vol. IX, pp. 698 sq. 

 713 sqq. A. Devine, C.P., The Law of Chris 



17 Cfr. A. A. Lambing, Mixed Han Marriage, New York, 1909. 

 Marriages, Their Origin and Results, 



