Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/509

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Parents and children ought to profess the same faith. A Protestant artisan who had married a Catholic, and whose only child died, expressed himself as follows?" Standing beside the death -bed of our child, I felt how great a gulf separated my wife from me. In my opinion, mixed marriages are very deplorable. O Truly, no one who cares about his own salvation and that of his children ought to contract a mixed marriage.

3. My second quotation is taken from a pamphlet entitled, "A Word of Warning to Protestants." It runs thus: "How unhappy a wife must be, who has been brought up a Catholic, and reflects, every time she attends divine worship, that her children are being, educated as Protestants. And the opposite case is just as painful. Nor do I think that the religious discussions which must arise between husband and wife can be very edifying. These discussions can scarcely be avoided if each is in earnest in regard to his or her beliefs. And if religion is to be a forbidden subject, what will become of the children?"

4. A Catholic priest could not much better or more forcibly express his disapproval of mixed marriages, than do these extracts from Protestant sources. Listen to the decision of the Catholic Church concerning mixed marriages. She has always declared her disapproval of them, and advised, nay commanded, Catholics to avoid contracting