Should my wife and I return to the Catholic faith?

[Virgil the Roman]

Speak with your local Traditional Catholic priest and have nice talk with him. Do ask for God's help. The Catholic Church was established for the salvation of Mankind, you obviously feel the pull of God there (otherwise you wouldn't have bothered to ask or enquire): Go and ask!

Blessings,
Virgil the Roman

P.S. I'll keep you and yours in my prayers.

 

[Fantine]

My Vietnamese friend grew up with Catholic and Buddhist family members. Her father, a Buddhist, converted to Catholicism to please her mother, but now that they are retired, he is reverting more and more to Buddhism and has stopped attending Church. His heart was never in the conversion--even when he was "Catholic" his beliefs were still very much Buddhist--he only attended to please his wife.

And so she is very unhappy....

I don't know exactly how conversion after marriage works today, with the RCIA program, etc. If someone was converting for the good of a relationship with little or no belief in the dogmas of Catholicism, would a priest today baptize him/her?

Especially when the belief system was non-Christian?

I think that it is better for a person's soul to have a faith that nurtures his soul than to have a lifeless, meaningless membership in Catholicism. That's what I tell her about her dad, too, that after a lifetime of meaningless membership, now, late in life, he is searching for meaning and purpose and transcendence--and has, at last, found it, and that hopefully her mother can understand that his poor soul was withering and dying so far from the religion of his heritage and his heart.

 

[fhansen]

Hi everyone!

My wife and I have just married. I was raised Catholic, she Buddhist (she is Chinese). I have never been very good about practicing the faith, but my wife and I are thinking of raising our children Catholic as I've told her (my wife) how much the faith brought to my childhood.

I guess I am writing this because I feel a little bit confused. Committing ourselves to Catholicism is a big step, particularly for my wife (although she says she is ready for it). We now attend a local church fairly regularly and both take a lot away from the service.

Anyway, I am curious to hear from those of you who have decided to raise your children in the faith. What do you feel it has brought to their lives? To yours? How do you think this shapes them as people? And what do you think they would be like were you not to raise them Catholic?

Excuse all of the questions! I know I am not being particularly direct here, but I am hoping a little dialogue will help my wife and I with our decision. (We do not have any children yet, by the way. Just planning for the next few years.)

Thank you!

Do it. It'd be better if whatever caused you to value Catholicism in your childhood continued to excite you now-then you'd have no reservations about passing it on-and the kids would pick up on your zeal. But it's beneficial to them that you want to pass it on in any case and this will at least get them informed of the "Catholic Option", so to speak.

 

[Wayaok]

It’s a feather in your cap that you are thinking ahead about what’s best spirituality for yourself and future family (quiver of little arrows). Your searching here and at a few of the Christian Forums shows that your heart’s desire as husband and future father is to do what’s best for bestowing God’s blessings upon your family.

In that you are Canadian and by the looks of your avatar it’s only natural that your Christian faith would have some Catholic roots, possibly due to the first efforts of the French Jesuit missionaries across North America.

It’s important that you and your wife have a peace in your hearts. My prayer is that your family will find a church that in which you enjoy the worship, teaching and fellowship. What’s most important is that it enhances your families desire to love the Lord with all your heart(spirit). The Lord will lead and guide you and your wife along straight paths as you learn to trust in Him. With all Christians that abide in Him we become more in tune with that inward witness … that still small voice that helps us have a peace in our inner being about such important decisions and keeping our priorities in tune with His perspective. Phil 4:4-8

 

[WarriorAngel]

Hi everyone!

My wife and I have just married. I was raised Catholic, she Buddhist (she is Chinese). I have never been very good about practicing the faith, but my wife and I are thinking of raising our children Catholic as I've told her (my wife) how much the faith brought to my childhood.

I guess I am writing this because I feel a little bit confused. Committing ourselves to Catholicism is a big step, particularly for my wife (although she says she is ready for it). We now attend a local church fairly regularly and both take a lot away from the service.

Anyway, I am curious to hear from those of you who have decided to raise your children in the faith. What do you feel it has brought to their lives? To yours? How do you think this shapes them as people? And what do you think they would be like were you not to raise them Catholic?

Excuse all of the questions! I know I am not being particularly direct here, but I am hoping a little dialogue will help my wife and I with our decision. (We do not have any children yet, by the way. Just planning for the next few years.)

Thank you!

Kids absorb faith like a sponge when they are small - it starts them off with the building blocks of morality.

A few things you will face - they will eventually get to an age where it doesnt seem to matter to them - as you yourself went thru - and it will bring them back - as you are going thru.
Why? Because grace works.

As scripture say - and i loosely quote it - raise a child in the ways of God and they will not depart in it.
Moral ground work is the healthiest stepping stones for the future.

Best wishes.

PS - i have 4 kids, youngest is 12 on this Tues... [31st] the rest are teens.

They were raised with manners and faith - and hoping they remember all i have tried to teach them including Church attendance.

Its a big world - but with all the grace given thru the sacraments - God will continue to call them back to His arms. It's the best choice - it is the original faith of Christ - which came to us from Judaism. It's ancient with lots of evidence to support it.

 

[Athanasias]

Conversion is a death process. If your not willing (to at least try your best to) die to yourself for Christ, his truth, and his Catholic Church then one should seriously reconsider converting. Grace is not cheap. Christ suffered and died(And rose) for everyone to be Catholic. Everyone! That makes Catholicism and its message dead serious compared to the other religions of the world.