Note 989 — Chapter II · THE TREATMENT OF PENITENTS IN DIFFERENT EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Lehmkuhl, l. c. n. 715, justifies the dispensation of the Church, under the conditions laid down, upon the following grounds: 1. Propter magnum bonum publicum, such mixed marriages may be allowed even when there is some risk, only the Catholic party must have the firm intention not to yield to this danger (cf. Lugo, De sacr. in gen. Disp. 8, sect. ult., et De Fide Disp. 32, n. 33). 2. But when on account of circumstances those dangers disappear, or become slight, a magnum bonum privatum, such as the hope of leading the non-Catholic party to the true faith, can also make such a marriage permissible. 3. When they cannot be entirely removed, but yet are not really grave; or, on the other hand, when a bonum, though no very great bonum, is to be hoped for from the mixed marriage, it may happen that contracting such a marriage is not a grave sin against the natural law, but a venial sin.