Editing Pope Pius VIII (section)

===Marriage===
Pius accepted the situation on [[interdenominational marriage|mixed marriage]]s between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but he opposed changes in Ireland and Poland, which were still strongly Catholic. In his brief ''Litteris altero abhinc'', he declared that a mixed marriage could only be blessed by a priest if proper promises had been made to educate the children of the marriage as Catholics.<ref name=ce>Löffler, K. (1911). [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12134a.htm Pope Pius VIII]. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved February 16, 2016.</ref> However, the brief also which allowed priests to offer "passive assistance" at a mixed marriage ceremony when the non-Catholic party declined to make the oath providing for the children of the marriage to be brought up as Catholics. The provision for "passive assistance" meant that a priest could conduct a wedding, acting as a witness, but the marriage would not be blessed or seen as a [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|sacrament]].<ref>Berg, S. M., [https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1263&context=gradschool_theses In the shadow of Josephinism: Austria and the Catholic Church in the Restoration, 1815-1848], [[Louisiana State University]], ''LSU Scholarly Repository'', p. 72, published August 2010, accessed on 15 August 2024</ref>