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Interchurch Marriages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Martin Reardon
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Episcopal Conference of England and Wales based upon the Apostolic Letter Issued Motu Proprio on 31st March, 1970, by His Holiness Pope Paul VI determining Norms for Mixed Marriages

Until the publication last year of the Motu Proprio and the Directory by the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales mixed marriages looked very different to different people. It depended where you stood. In fact there can be few states of life which appeared so different according to viewpoint.

If you were an average Roman Catholic priest or bishop brought up in the One True Church with a firm Catholic tradition, they were a major problem. More than half your marriages were mixed and the majority of the non-Catholic partners were merely nominal Christians. One of your primary concerns must have been that the Catholic partner continued to practise his or her faith and the children were brought up as Catholics. The Catholic Church in this country has been the only major Church which has increased in numbers in recent years, and, apart from the Irish immigration, the children of mixed marriages have probably accounted for the largest part of this increase.

If you were an average Anglican priest or bishop brought up in a firm Anglican tradition, mixed marriages with Roman Catholics were a minor, but very sharp, problem. You came across few of them where the Roman Catholic practised his religion, but the ones you did meet showed that ‘One True Church of Christ’ at its most intransigent, intolerant of the conscience of the Anglican partner. You were tempted to be as intolerant in return, leaving the couple as bewildered and unhappy pawns of a different colour trying to make love in the middle of an ecclesiastical game of chess.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 52 , Issue 611 , April 1971 , pp. 183 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © 1971 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

page 183 note 1 Available from the Catholic Truth Society.

page 184 note 1 A fourth national conference for interchurch families is planned for Spode House, 19th‐21st November, 1971; for further details write to the Warden, Spode House, Hawkes‐yard Priorv. Rucelev. Staffs. The Association of Interchurch Families is now oraanized regionally: for further details write to Martin and Ruth Reardon, 58 Bocking Lane, Sheffield S8 7BH.

page 186 note 1 The Joint Working Group of the British Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic Church has published some recommendations on The Joint Pastoral Care of Interchurch Marriages in England, Wales and Scotland. It is available, price 3p, from the B.C.C. or from Benedictine Priory, Priory Close, London N14 4AT.