Etsi fraternitatis — Pius VII on Divorce and Remarriage
Pius VII, Letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, Etsi Fraternitatis, October 8, 1803
(Resumé of the difficulties proposed by the Archbishop.)
To reply to you in a fitting and comprehensive manner, according to the duty of our Pastoral Office, regarding the above mentioned problems, We deem it necessary to present first of all two principles which constitute the foundation of the whole question and which always must be held in mind, especially when the matter is that of entering or dissolving marriages between Catholics and heretics or even between heretics themselves.
The principles
(The Church’s abhorrence of mixed marriages.)
The first principle is that the Church has always prohibited and condemned marriages contracted between Catholics and heretics as harmful and detestable. We could easily prove that by quoting an innumerable number of decrees of Councils and Supreme Pontiffs, if it were not sufficient to call to mind what was written by Our Predecessor of immortal memory, Benedict XIV, both in his Encyclical Letter to the Primate, Archbishops, and Bishops of Poland (a), and later in his memorable work regarding the diocesan Synod. Even when these marriages are tolerated in certain places, on account of the difficulties of the times, this is only by a permission that must in no way be considered an approval or sent, but rather a tolerance — not given of one’s own free will — to avoid further and greater evils. These were the words of Pius VI, of happy memory, not so long ago to the Bishops of Breslau, Rosenau and Zips.
Incompetence of the civil power to dissolve marriage
The second principle is that the sentence of lay tribunals and non-Catholic assemblies which issue sentences of nullity and attempt to dissolve marriages have no value or effect in the eyes of the Church. You ask what a parish priest must do when one of the parties, freed from his first marriage and having obtained his liberty by a sentence of a non-Catholic tribunal, wishes to wed a Catholic. You ask if the parish priest can assist at this marriage and give the nuptial blessing, as some have dared to do in your diocese, (as you tell us) you yourselves, by the wisdom that distinguishes you, should understand that such priests commit a very grave crime and betray the sacred ministry, if they approve of such marriages by their presence and ratify them with their blessing! On the other hand, it cannot be called a marriage but an adulterous union, since the impediment — the bond of the first marriage — which persists and remains unaltered — cannot be dissolved or annulled by the sentence of a non-Catholic tribunal. As long as such an impediment remains and persists every other union between the man and the woman is adulterous. Therefore, instead of sweet and persuasive words, it is preferable that the parish priest seriously exhort the person not to commit such a grave crime and sin against the law of God, a law He established from the beginning of the world, and therefore He said: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mt 19:6). If the person obstinately refuses to listen to his parish priest and unites himself with a non-Catholic, thus committing an infamous adultery, and if the parish priest sees that it could be highly dangerous to religion to insist again and oppose his will to such a union, he can then bear in silence such a monstrous crime, but he can never assist at such a union, much less bless it. If the secular power orders, threatens or reproves, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The priest of God, according to the words of St. Cyprian, servant of the Gospel and defender of Christ’s precepts, can be put to death but he can never be vanquished (Letter to Cornelius Contra haereticos).
Repentant Divorcees
7. To give a complete answer to the questions which you have proposed to Us, it must still be decided whether the wedded parties belonging to the Catholic religion, who after the dissolution of the first marriage means of the sole authority of a non-Catholic court contract a second marriage before a non-Catholic minister, and then, repentant of the crime committed, humbly ask forgiveness can or cannot be admitted to the sacraments. There can be no doubt at all on the matter, provided they do the penance imposed on them, and all separate from the second party, if the first party is still living. However, if the first husband or wife is dead, and the two parties actually living together are Catholics, it is for the Bishop to decide what must be done so that the marriage can be established sacramentally and according to the law. If it is a case of a Catholic who wishes to marry a non-Catholic — whether it be the case that the first marriage has been rightly and legitimately dissolved by a double sentence of the Ecclesiastical judge; or whether it be the case that the first marriage has been naturally annulled and dissolved through the death of the partner — the Bishop will to act with caution and the utmost care.
As the Church has always abhorred marriages between heretics and Catholics and has always forbidden them by most severe laws — because at all times there is hidden therein for the Catholic party the grave danger of perversion and alienation from the faith and also because the Catholic education of the children of both sexes has always been proven to be uncertain and doubtful — let the Bishops reject and refuse such unions as far as they can in all charity and Christian gentleness. If the damage and the perversion of the Catholic spouse can be avoided and the Christian education of the children assured according to the conditions which Benedict in the above quoted letter to the Bishops of Poland prescribed to be diligently observed, and if you, Venerable Brethren, or your suffragan Bishops ask Us for a dispensation, We will not refuse to heed your prayers in certain cases and for a pressing reason whenever the good of religion and the salvation of souls makes it necessary.
Original Latin: Pius VII, Brief Etsi fraternitatis, October 8, 1803 (CIC Fontes, II, p. 718) https://archive.org/details/CICF-Gasparri/D-c.i.f.-Vol.2N.1-365-544Gasparri/page/n364/mode/2up?view=theater
English Translation: Papal Teaching, Matrimony, Benedictine Monks of Solesmes, tr., Michael J. Byrnes, Boston, Daughters of St. Paul, 1963