The reason for my asking is that King Ferdinand of Romania was denied communion at Catholic masses for 20 years, for allowing his own six children to all be raised in the Eastern Orthodox faith.
Like the Bulgarian queen, he had to obtain a dispensation from the Catholic Church in order to marry a non-Catholic. In pre-Vatican II days, the terms for such a thing were very strict: a promise had to be made that all prospective children born to the union be brought up as Catholics.
For Catholic royals sitting on the thrones of non-Catholic countries, this undoubtedly created problems, since the expectation was that their children be brought up in the religions of their countries. So exceptions did occasionally apply: King Ferdinand of Romania would have remained in good standing with the Church, had he kept to his pledge to raise only his heir (meaning eldest son) Orthodox. As it was, a breach was committed when he allowed his younger children to be baptized Romanian Orthodox.
Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians and his first wife (Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma), however, kept their pledge to raise only the heir in the Orthodox faith. That would have been the future Tsar Boris -- who married a Catholic. I'm wondering about the exact terms he and his wife agreed to, when obtaining a dispensation from the Catholic Church. I understand that their wedding took place in Assisi, Italy.
Does anybody know why he didn't marry, instead of the Catholic Princess Giovanna of Italy (whose own mother, born Princess Elena of Montenegro, converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism in order to marry the future King Vittorio Emmanuele III), the Orthodox Princess Ileana of Romania? Ironically enough, the latter ended up marrying a Catholic (Archduke Anton of Austria). Perhaps her Habsburg husband should have become the groom of the Italian princess instead ...
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