Mixed Religion Marriage in Canada and Australia: A Gift for the People of God

The number of Mixed Religion marriages recorded in the Catholic Church in Canada and Australia is significantly smaller than the number of such marriages actually taking place. 

These marriages constitute not a problem, but a gift to the Church for the healing of what George Tavard, one of the drafters of Unitatis Redintegratio, referred to as estrangement between the parts of the Body of Christ.

Reality

In Canada, approximately 10% of all marriages recorded in the Catholic Church are Mixed Religionmarriages. In Australia, the figure is approximately 9%.

In Canada, approximately 43% of all marriages involving a Catholic are Mixed Religionmarriages. In Australia, it is approximately 35%.

These two statements appear contradictory, yet each is supported by extensive data from within their respective realms, the Catholic Church, Statistics Canada, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  

Together they present both challenge and opportunity for the Catholic Church in these countries.

Definition

There are two theologically and ecclesiologically different terms used when speaking of marriages between a Catholic and a person who is not Catholic.

Disparity of Cult involves a Catholic in relationship with a person who, while also a child of God, is not baptized.

Mixed Religion marriage (commonly known as ‘mixed marriage’) involves a Catholic in relationship with a baptized person of another Christian tradition. 

This person is a sibling in the Body of Christ, though the parts of the ecclesia through which that person is incarnated into that Body are more or less estranged from each other.

Note: the term ‘interfaith’ is often, and inaccurately, applied to both forms, presenting a challenge to calling forth the gift of Mixed Religion marriages within their churches and the Church.

Research Process

In 2018, a letter was sent to all Catholic Bishops in Canada, requesting data on marriages in their Dioceses for the years 2015-16-17. 

The same was done in Australia in 2020, requesting 2016 data.  

These letters requested that all marriages recorded in the diocese for the specified year(s) be included, differentiating between three different categories, being Catholic-Catholic, Catholic-Other Christian (i.e. Mixed Religion), and Catholic-Other/no faith (i.e. Disparity of Cult). 

 The Catholic bishops of both countries responded with great generosity.  

Of importance too was that the percentage of Catholics represented in the responses significantly outweighed the percentage of dioceses responding.

The respondent data was then compared with data from Statistics Canada (for 2001-2004), and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2016). 

Given that the Statistics Canada data was from earlier years, it was compared with other, populist data sources, to determine reasonability of accuracy.

The data

While the majority of reporting dioceses provided data according to the requested criteria, approximately 20% (Canada) and 38% (Australia) were unable to do so, as their records did not differentiate between Disparity of Cultand Mixed Religion marriages. 

Instead, they simply amalgamated the statistics into one group.

Amalgamation makes for easier recording.  

It also means that no differentiation can be made between types of need or gift.  

How can we establish pastoral programs in response to particular pastoral need, much less call forth the particular gift such couples bring to the Church as the Body of Christ, if we do not know what the various pastoral realities are, and to what extent they are present?

Mixed Religion accounted for approximately 10% of all marriages recorded within the Catholic Church in either country.  

These are marriages either celebrated in a Catholic church, or celebrated under the auspices of another church, with the record sent back to the parish of the Catholic spouse.  

This submitted data was then compared with data from Statistics Canada and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 

Interim findings

The comparison revealed that, both as a percentage of marriages and in real terms, there were many more marriages involving a Catholic and a person of another Christian tradition than are indicated in Catholic Church records.

It also became clear that Mixed Religion marriage, absolutely forbidden in the 1917 Code of Canon Law is now a normal (though not normative) part of Catholic life in both countries.

It is clear that within these countries, a large percentage of marriages in which at least one spouse is Catholic do not take place within the Catholic Church.  

On the one hand, this is a great sadness, as these couples are unable to avail themselves of the full graces that come with the sacramental life and liturgy of the Church. Both they and the Church are the poorer for it.

On the other hand, they represent a very large portion of the population who may at some point be invited to reflect on their marriages within a spiritual and ecclesial perspective, may be nurtured through the Good News in their lives of faith and in their marriages.

The presence of gift

According to Catholic theology, Christian couples, by virtue of their baptism and marriage, live a sacramental gift of unity within their marriages.  They can be considered churches in miniature, domestic churches.  

Such domestic churches form part of, and contribute to, the life of the larger ecclesial community, in this case their parish, diocese, and indeed the whole Church.  

As such, the gift of unity which they live is a gift not only for them but for the whole Church, and indeed for the world, that it may believe (cf Jn 17:21).

This is so not only when the marriage is between two Catholics, but also when it is between a Catholic and a person of another Christian tradition.  

As Pope John Paul II said in speaking to interchurch families in York, UK, in 1982, “You live in your marriage the hopes and difficulties of the path to Christian unity.”  He also spoke of them as being “a specific revelation and realisation of ecclesial communion”.  

About them, Cardinal Walter Kasper said:

“Mixed marriage families are an ever present reality in many parts of the world. While not turning a blind eye to the challenges faced by mixed marriage couples, the Catholic Church looks to them also in terms of their intrinsic value and invites reflection on the contributions they can make to their respective communities, as they live out their Christian discipleship faithfully and creatively. Mixed marriage families have indeed something to offer in terms of an ecumenical exchange of gifts.”

That “something to offer” is bound up in the gift of faith which each has received and nurtured within their respective tradition, a “pearl of great price” (cf Mt. 13:45-46), as it were.  

This gift is easily recognized in some couples because they worship together, and raise their children, as much as possible in both their churches.  Others are less recognizable, either because the spouses worship in separate churches, or because one or both no longer worship at all.  

In these latter cases, the couple, and their churches, are the poorer for it.

We must remember, however, that lack of recognition, and even lack of expression, does not constitute lack of presence of gift. 

 Even if dormant, it is still there, given by God in baptism and marriage, ready to be recognized, drawn out, nurtured, bear fruit for the good of the domestic church, their churches, the Church, and the world.  It is to this task that we now turn.

Reaching and receiving the gift

The Catholic Church in both countries, as institution, has little connection to a large portion of marriages taking place in which only one spouse is Catholic.  

They are unknown to Catholic clergy, and hence beyond the capacity of Catholic clergy to reach out to them.  

Therefore, any program inviting such couples to explore, reflect on, and tell their story of gift cannot be focused on the institutional Church.

The Church can, however, play a vital role, beginning simply by recognizing and recording marriages in a way which indicates their diversity, i.e. Catholic with Catholic, Catholic with baptized Christian, Catholic with a non-baptized child of God.

Aware of its incapacity at this stage, due to the sinful estrangement that has occurred within the Body of Christ, to welcome all Christians to the Eucharist, it can also explicitly recognize what Susan K Wood refers to as “the real pain, the profound embarrassment, the wrenching experience of exclusion” that this estrangement may inflict on Mixed Religion families in its midst, especially at events such as baptisms, first communions, marriages, and funerals. 

Such a recognition of inflicted pain can serve as a soothing balm on the journey to the healing of estrangement.

This does not mean that such couples should be beyond the loving pastoral embrace of the Church. 

 It means, rather, that we must look to different ways to wrap them in that embrace. 

We must look to ways of calling and empowering the laity to their own mission in the world, of which Mixed Religion couples form a significant part. 

These couples, unknown to the Church, are known to couples within the Christian churches, through their workplaces, the schools to which they send their children, the communities in which they live and conduct their social lives.  

Any outreach vehicle, process or program must therefore focus on the laity, in any Christian church, whereby they invite their brothers and sisters in Christ, whether active in a church or not, to come together in their homes, to recognize each other, listen to and learn from each other, and in the process call each other forth in realizing and celebrating the gift of unity they live in their marriages, a gift also for the healing of ecclesial estrangement.

This should not be intended to increase ecclesial participation, but to enable Mixed Religion couples to discover the gift of their own experience of living within their respective traditions and with each other’s, reflect on that experience, and through that reflection share their gift with the Body of Christ, the Church.

In short, the laity must be empowered and equipped to take up their work of sharing and enhancing the gift of faith and unity which has been given them, and which they are called to share, as gift, with each other.  

In so doing, not only will they become living signs of the unity of their marriage; they will participate in what Pope Benedict XVI called“the formation of a practical laboratory of unity” for the good of the whole Church.

(The Canadian research from which this article is drawn can be found here and the Australian research here.)

Ray Temmerman (Catholic) is married to Fenella (Anglican). They are part of the Interchurch Families International Network (IFIN).  Ray administers the website of the IFIN.