Slamming the barn door after the horse is gone

This article, explains how Cardinal Camillo Ruini has put out guidance to priests to advise Catholics against marrying Muslims.

Cultural differences over issues such as the role of women and the education of children made such partnerships very difficult, said Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar General of Rome. In a document released to the conference of bishops yesterday, Cardinal Ruini wrote: "The experience of recent years leads us as a general rule to advise against or in any case to discourage these marriages.

Not that I disagree with Cardinal Ruini about marrying Muslims but he is off the mark here. He is too late to the process.

Cardinal Ruini expressed his concern at a growing number of mixed-faith marriages in Italy, which he called "intrinsically fragile". According to the Italian statistics office ISTAT, there were more than 19,000 such marriages in Italy last year.

If you want to stop this problem (and yes, it's a problem) you need to reach people a long time before marriage is being considered. To paraphrase my grandmother, "If you never date a Muslim you'll never marry a Muslim." Relationships don't start at the point of marriage. If you wait to explain that it's a bad idea until the person is considering marriage all you will succeed in doing is getting them to choose the marriage over the church.