in the .......... Church), do
hereby promise that, if the Bishop finds canonical cause for
granting me a dispensation, I will have all my children baptized
and reared in the Catholic Church, and that I will practice my
Religion faithfully and do all I can, especially by prayer,
example, and the frequentation of the Sacraments, to bring about
the conversion of my consort.

Signed in presence of

......................... .........................
Date .........................

There is no question that such requirements may prevent a number of
marriages between native born and immigrants, when one is a Catholic and
the other a non-Catholic. It is not always possible for a non-Catholic
to follow the required conditions and as a result family quarrels and
the disruption of families may occur. The writer has observed three such
cases. In one case there were involved a native and an immigrant, and in
two cases immigrants alone.

A similar ban or check on interfaith, which often means international,
marriages is found among sectarian immigrant groups. Their extreme
religious sentiment prevents them from marrying outsiders, and as a
result inbreeding occurs. They marry close relatives and defectives. For
instance, near Lincoln, Nebraska, where a small German colony of
Mennonites is settled, the birth of idiots and otherwise defective
children was so noticeable that the colony's leaders and their neighbors
decided to bring about a change. The marriage of close relatives was
prohibited and the ban on marriage with outsiders was done away with.
This change has had a very good result, according to the colony's
leaders. The change was possible only because the sectarian beliefs had
been weakened under the pressure of the general American conditions.

The orthodox Jews are similarly opposed to the marriage of their
members with the Gentiles. So far as the writer has learned, they do not
require signed promises. They are uncompromising in such matters and
ostracize any one of their members who marries an outsider.

The usual explanation of the need of such a ban or check on interfaith
marriages is that if the parents are of different faiths the children
will be lost to the Church. Whatever the explanation or justification of
the Church opposition to interfaith marriages, it often applies to
immigrants and makes for their continued separation from America.

IMMIGRANT PASTORS

Very o