By contracting marriage in this way, they run a great risk of bringing on themselves and on their children, should they have any, the _maledictions_ of Heaven instead of the blessings of religion.

In order to put a stop to this growing abuse, and to prevent it from spreading like a contagion to other parts of the Diocese, we beg to remind the faithful of certain regulations which, for the future, shall have force in the Diocese of Ossory in reference to the Catholics, who so far forget themselves as to contract such marriages.
"1.

In the first place, any one who contracts a "Mixed Marriage" without a dispensation from the Holy See and before a Protestant Minister or a Registrar is, by the very fact, guilty of a most grievous mortal sin by violating a solemn law of the Church in a most grave matter.
"2.

The Catholic who assists as witness at such marriage also commits a most grievous sin by co-operating in an unlawful act.
"3.

Both the Catholic party contracting the marriage and the Catholic witnesses to it cannot be absolved by any priest in the Diocese of Ossory, unless by the Bishop or by those to whom he grants special faculties.
"4.