Catholics should not marry Muslims, say Italian bishops

[Thom Little]

Italian bishops gave warning yesterday against Catholics marrying Muslims, citing cultural differences and fears that children born to mixed marriages would shun Christianity.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the president of the Italian Bishops Conference, said: “In addition to the problems that any couple encounters when forming a family, Catholics and Muslims have to reckon with the difficulties that inevitably arise from deep cultural differences.”

Cardinal Ruini, one of the right-hand men of Pope Benedict XVI, said that it was often the woman who married a Muslim man and it was she who converted to Islam. In a statement, the bishops said that if an Italian woman married a Muslim immigrant and then settled in his country of origin, her rights were “not guaranteed in the way they are in Italy or in other Western nations”.

In addition the children of mixed marriages tended to be brought up as Muslims and not as Catholics. Such marriages should, therefore, be discouraged. Church officials said that there were 200,000 mixed marriages in Italy, with 20,000 this year alone, an increase of 10 per cent on the previous year.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1898451,00.html

[Straight Shooter]

1. BFD. Catholics always circle the wagons.

Marry a Catholic and it's the duty of the Catholic parent to raise the children Catholic.

My father had to convert to Catholicism to marry my mother. All four of us were raised strict Catholic. Now one of us is a Christian Scientist, one of us is a lukewarm Catholic, one of us is a Methodist, and one of us (that's me) is fairly spiritual but by no means beholden to any religion.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. My brother married a Catholic

in Germany, and she refused to have their daughter raised Catholic, and told the priest my brother would remain a Methodist. Interestingly enough, she later became a follower of the Baghwan Rajneesh, as did her daughter.....

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. This really has been the Catholic party line

for as long as I personally remember. Catholics marry Catholics.

[quaoar]

And years ago

the Vatican was warning Catholics about marrying Protestants.

And Jewish leaders have a fit when Jews marry non-Jews.

[DanCa]

11. Pro Family

How can these people call themselves pro family? They used to be against B&W marriages as well.

[itcfish]

3. Too Late

I will be married to a muslim for 25 years next March. LOL And they said it would never last.


:woohoo: :rofl:

[Maat]

13. Good for you!

See, bigots of this nature are just plain wrong!

(I, by no means, mean to offend or single out progressive Catholics.)

[MADem]

4. And Italian priests should not have housekeepers with illegitimate

children who look exactly like the priest...!

Ya gotta love the "I make the rules, I don't have to follow them!" attitude of some of these guys!!!

[MemphisTiger]

5. This is not uncommon as far as Christians go

The only requirment laid out by the Bible for marriage says the two must be "equally yolked" This means they must either be both Christian or both non-Christian. It says nothing of race or nationality. Catholics usually will marry the two if you agree to raise the children as Catholic. However, if you're a practicing non-Christian, like Muslim or atheist, they reserve the right to not marry the couple. That is not to say they will kick you out of the church.

[Igel]

6. It's also not an unfair characterization of most conservative forms

of Islam: the man may be Muslim and marry a Jew or Christian (not a 'polytheist'), but a Muslim woman may not marry a Jew, Christian, or polytheist.

Some fiqhs are widely (in some countries and quarters) interpreted to say the latter marriages simply don't exist, whatever the couple or state may say. After all, the chain of submission set forth by Allah should not be violated.

[funflower]

10. This is a good example of why we should ALL ditch the conservative

strands of religion, whether Muslim, Catholic, Protestant or Jew. They are all really about male dominance and religious rule. Liberals of any religion can generally get along and can even have successful interfaith marriages.

[napi21]

7. This is not a new position in the Catholic Church.

I was taught "all Catholics should seek to only marry a Catholic mate" when I was in greade school, and I'm 62 years old! They didn't mention Muslim, but I can't even remember hearing the word Muslim back then.

There was one option. If you DID choose to mary an individual who was non-Catholic, that person had to promise to raise all children of that marriage as Catholics.

In some cases, there were serious problems caused in a "mixed" marriage. My FIL was a Methodist and MIL was a Catholic. He did sign the paper promising to raise the kids Catholic, but it caused many fights in that house, especially on Sundays. Good old Dad would often beat his wife because she went to church instead of staying home to make HIS breakfast when HE wanted it!!!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Oops

too late for a lovely couple I know. He is Muslim, she a Roman Catholic, both from the Middle East. Their kids are very independent-at our wedding, their daughter took notes of the ceremony and told her dad that was the kind of marriage ceremony she wanted! The ceremony included passages from different world religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Lakota ceremony, the Jewish religion, Christianity, and Islam.

Hmm...hope my Catholic friends don't get in trouble for participating in the Universal Worship service.

[Bill McBlueState]

12. oh, this is gold

I *love* how the RCs push women's rights as a reason to stay attached to Western traditions. Advances in gender equality have at every turn been opposed by Christian religious leaders. We're ahead of much of the rest of the world in terms of equality for women, but it's by no means thanks to the Catholic church.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. Actually, Muslims have their own rules on intermarriage

A Muslim man may marry a Christian or Jewish woman, although not a woman of any other reilgion, but their children must be raised Muslim.

A Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim man, not even a Christian or Jew, unless he converts to Islam. Under no circumstances may a Muslim convert to any other religion.