I was growing up at the time of your parents' wedding but being in Nth Qld we had mainly Italian Catholics and there didn't seem to be the same division, but The Church still made life hell for any catholic who chose to marry outside the faith. You mention suicide. I'm not surprised.
There are a number of my extended family in "mixed" marriages and I am as willing to go to a catholic church for a wedding or funeral as any other. In fact Father Lyons impresses me so much I must check out if he would do my burial service in spite of me being an athiest. Prolly not!
