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Show j MIXED MARRIAGES. Among the most serious impediments to com mon family, as well as common Sunday worship, are mixed marriages. In fact, the former cannot have place with the latter; and we may add, the latter lat-ter cannot happen where the former have been healthily practiced. I The young man or maiden who has from in- I fancy lived in an atmosphere of Catholic common I prayer will not easily picture happiness for him self or herself in a faith-divided household. On the other hand, mixed marriages render difficult, often almost impossible, all the duties of a Catholic Cath-olic home. Religion, which ought to bless a home : with peace, and help husband and wife, where nec essary, to mutual forbearance, is often the chief cause of dissension and of lifelong quarrels. The fancy, so common before mixed marriages, that "we are all worshipping the one God,"' however plausible in theory, does not, in after life, when I worship takes on itself the forms of actual practice, j ' realize a single one of the delusive promises. I ! ij The "morning offering" of the children; the ' prayers they are to be taught; the schools they are ' to attend; the Catechism they have to learn at home in the evenings; the Sacraments, for which, I in succession, they are to be prepared and which I they are to receive; the beautiful ceremonies of ! their first Communion and Confirmation; all, in a I thoroughly Catholic household, are so many graces N descending directly from Heaven, and largely bless- ! ;; ing the parents as well as the little ones, j On the other hand, in homes of mixed religion. I hw many times do those that should be sources j of happiness become occasions of strife among-the I parents and scandal to the children. Sometimes a Catholic young woman is satisfied that her promised prom-ised husband "will not interfere,"' that he will "allow "al-low her to have her own way with her children." IDocs she calculate on the danger of his changing his mind, or on the possibility of his relatives, by- i jj and-by. challenging him over his "weakness in giv- I inP i. 011 such a point, to a woman"? And, in the I ,rPt f circumstances, does she set before herself I tno having to do without his aid and support in all 1 lnat regards the religious forming of the chil- I; drens minds and habits? The inertness of her husband in the matter of religion and inertness is I the best thing she hopes for will reproduce itself in her boys, as they grow nigh to manhood. Indeed, In-deed, unless where a father has made himself a de- ' . graded or repulsive character, the sons, almost invariably, in-variably, form themselves on his model. They con-, con-, tinue to love and respect their mother, and her re-,i re-,i lation to them, but they shuffle off her "woman's piety." J ; Again, what weight can her words have with I ' her sons and daughters when, in after life, she tries I to dissuade them from taking to themselves spouses from outside the Church? Many young girls at-i at-i tempt to defend their contemplated union with non-Catholics non-Catholics by saying: "My father was not a Catholic, Cath-olic, yet he and mother got on very well." If such was the case, it was a rare exception amidst a host of unhappy marriages. Besides, we would say to r-,,.V. , : - i,ul u i ujMmiiij-. iour present easiness ot conscience con-science as to the religion of your future partner is probably the result of your mother's first mistake, and of your own childhood spent in an atmosphere of religious indifference. What will the next generation gen-eration be? How sad is all ibis, compared with the picture which a healthy Calholic household presents! pre-sents! And yet, -what we have been describing is an exceptionally ex-ceptionally good phase of mixed marriages. There are many instances where the domestic life is one ,) ceaseless domestic Avar. The husband, it mav be leaves the children to the stronger will or to the greater earnestness of the mother. But how often does the sneer of pity or contempt for their Catholicity Cath-olicity show itself on his lips! How often, in the very presence of the little ones, has the poor moth- I . rv to listen to him, covering, with Vis blasphemy. ' 4 the truths she so strives to make sacred to their young hearts! In reverses, like the Pagans of old, he lays the blame on her religion; and drunkenness drunken-ness and anger, where such are indulged in, find, in the difference of creeds, ready and abundant material for abuse. A life spent in this misery often ends in a death of still greater wretchedness. Many women circumstanced as we have been saying say-ing find themselves, after a short ten or fifteen years of motherhood, with an early death summoning summon-ing them out of the rorld. The bitterest thought i of that moment a bitterness which faith itself, in a sense, makes only more biting is the anticipation anticipa-tion of the fate that awaits her children. They, she knows, will no longer be Catholics; "they will be handed over, here and there, to his people," or some strange woman, most likely a non-Catholic, brought in over them. Were her husband of her own belief be-lief she might hope that in some Catholic institution, insti-tution, one or other of the' Saintly Sisterhoods of her Church, would still shelter the faith of her nestlings. But she feels now, and feels with remorse re-morse and dismay, that at her own death all Cath- " olicity dies for them. The beautiful Sunday's mass of her own childhood and of theirs, the "Hail Mary" and "Holy Mary" of evening prayer, the example and protection of the Mother of God, the check, and, at the same time, the consolation of confession bliss of the Eucharistic Communion, the timely monition of priest and nun all these are henceforward for other women's children, but not for hers. The struggle is over, and she is beaten, but beaten because from the first she placed herself her-self in a false position. There is no exaggeration in these remarks. We are constantly meeting children chil-dren of mixed marriages who were baptized, perhaps per-haps confirmed in the Catholic Church, but the mother died in their infancy, and the care ofthem fell to the friends of the non-Catholic father. Sad as are those cases which we have been describing, de-scribing, there are mixed marriages of a still more deplorable character. Sometimes the parents agree to divide the children between them; the sons are to follow the father and be brought up non-Catholics; the mother is to have the girls. Xo Catholic woman can conscientiously enter into any such arrangement; ar-rangement; nor, having entered into it, can she abide by it. As well might she contract to give half her own soul to a true worship, and half to a false one; or half her Sunday prayers in a non-Catholic temple and the other half in a Catholic church, as covenant to give one portion of her children to an alien faith, and the other to the true one. If she believes, as every Catholic is bound to hold, that Christ is really present in the Sacrament of the Altar, she cannot, without treason to God and injustice in-justice to her sons, allow these latter to be taught that the Sacred Host is but a "wafer," and. that those who worship the Almighty in it are idolaters. idola-ters. Recognizing, herself, in belief and in practice, prac-tice, that the Redeemer has instituted in His church the power of forgiving sin and an authority author-ity to "bind"' by laws, and "loose" by Indulgence, she cannot permit, or contract to permit, that any one of her children be trained to despise this au-! au-! thority, or ridicule that power. She professes her faith in the life-giving power of the Sacraments, and in the great benefit of the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints; yet, while so doing, sue insults bod, and grievously defrauds her children chil-dren by undertaking that they shall be brought up not to avail of the Sacraments nor to have recourse to the prayers of either Virgin or Saints. King Jeroboam withdrew ten of the tribes of Jacob from the one temple and one priesthood of Jerusalem, and he is known ever after, through the inspired writings, as "he who made Israel to sin." He committed com-mitted this treason to his God and his traditions, for certain earthly motives; and the Word of God has branded and chronicled his schism and its object ob-ject throughout all ages. What judgment awaits the mother who similarly rends the Israel of her household ? and while sending one-half to the fem-ple fem-ple of the true Jerusalem, agreed to let the other half worship at the altar of the schismatic king. j |