Q: What are the requirements for a mixed marriage? A: Entering a mixed marriage is highly unadvisable. Speaking as one who has had personal experience with them (having been the then-Protestant member of a marriage with a Catholic), mixed marriages always involve pain for both of the parties unless neither spouse cares about religion. These problems can be very grave, threaten the survival of the marriage, and may not emerge for years (as, for example, …showed first 75 words of 617 total…

…showed last 75 words of 617 total…with a non-Catholic minister as the officiating minister. A priest may not only attend such a ceremony but may also address, pray with, and bless the couple. "'It is not permitted,' however, the [U.S.] bishops' statement declared, 'to have two religious services or to have a single service in which both the Catholic marriage ritual and a non-Catholic marriage ritual are celebrated jointly or successively'" (1995 Catholic Almanac [Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1995], 233-4).