§ 204. Mixed Marriages

By the more recent terminology, a mixed marriage (γάμος μικτός) is the term for the marital bond between two persons belonging to different Christian confessions. In view of the religious purpose of marriage, which we have seen in the concept of marriage (§ 178), and in view of the need for husband and wife to support one another in the cultivation of religious feeling and to do this jointly also with regard to their children—which is impossible to attain in a family in which husband and wife are not of one faith—the Church has never been able to approve a mixed marriage, just as she cannot approve it today. But even though the Church does not approve such a marriage, she must nevertheless tolerate it, for such marriages have been contracted since the most ancient times of the Church and have stood under the protection of the civil laws; and so the Church too, in order to forestall a greater evil and to remove a possible occasion of scandal, has had to permit such marriages in extraordinary circumstances, taking care that at least the essential Orthodox character be preserved of the family that arose from the mixed marriage, and that the children be raised in the teaching of the Orthodox Church. It is owing to the influence of the Church that the older Roman legislation was modified in this sense, and new laws on this question were issued by the Emperor Justinian. While recognizing as fully lawful only that marriage which is contracted between two persons of the same faith, a mixed marriage between an Orthodox and a non-Orthodox person is permitted in exceptional cases, save that the children of such a marriage must be baptized and raised in the Orthodox Church, and in any resulting matrimonial suits the Orthodox spouse must enjoy every advantage over the non-Orthodox spouse.[1]

This did not, however, permit every mixed marriage without distinction, such that an Orthodox person could marry any heterodox Christian person indiscriminately. A distinction is drawn between the marriage of Orthodox persons with heretics and the marriage of Orthodox persons with schismatics. On the former—that is, on the marriage of Orthodox persons with heretics—the 72nd canon of the Council in Trullo ordains: “It shall not be permitted to an Orthodox man to be joined to a heretical woman, nor to an Orthodox woman to be wed to a heretical man; and should it be discovered that anyone has done such a thing, the marriage is to be considered invalid, and the unlawful union is to be dissolved. For that which cannot be mixed ought not to be mixed, nor should the lamb be joined with the wolf, nor the lot of sinners with the inheritance of Christ; and whoever transgresses what we have here established shall be excommunicated. But if some, while still in unbelief and not yet numbered among the flock of the Orthodox, were joined in lawful marriage, and afterward one of them, choosing the good, turned to the light of truth, while the other remained fettered by error, unwilling to turn his eyes to the divine rays—[in that case], if it is pleasing to the unbelieving wife to live with the believing husband, or conversely to the unbelieving husband with the believing wife, let them not be separated, according to the divine Apostle: for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband.”[2] This canon merely repeats and confirms the canonical ordinances on this question from an earlier time,[3] condemning every marriage of an Orthodox person with a heretical person, except for that case which the Apostle Paul mentions in the passage cited in the canon.[4] What heresy is, and whom the Church regards as a heretic, we have already discussed.[5]

The canon law of the Orthodox Church judges the marriage of Orthodox Christians with schismatics differently. The Church permits such a marriage whenever a justified need makes itself felt and when it is thereby a matter of forestalling some greater evil. What schism is, and who is regarded as a schismatic, we have stated (§ 149, 3). With regard to marriage between an Orthodox and a schismatic person, the following rules apply: 1) such a marriage should be prevented by every means possible; and if it is not possible to succeed in this, one should 2) endeavor that the schismatic party accept the Orthodox faith; if this is not achieved, one should 3) require a written undertaking from the schismatic party that he will not hinder the preservation of the Orthodox faith and all Orthodox customs within the family; and 4) that all children born of such a mixed marriage will be raised in the Orthodox faith.[6]

The question of mixed marriages between Christians of different confessions is today regulated in the several states by civil legislation, according to the position which the Orthodox Church occupies in the given state vis-à-vis the other confessions, and with regard to the so-called liberal spirit which prevails to a greater or lesser degree in one state or another.[7] The Church respects, and is bound to respect, the civil laws on this question in so far as they do not conflict with the ecclesiastical prescriptions on mixed marriages. In the contrary case she will recognize the civil validity of the particular mixed marriage that has been contracted contrary to her prescriptions on the matter, but she cannot recognize such a marriage as having the standing of a lawful church marriage.