I am a mainline Protestant, quite content to live with the idea that God isn't all that interested in our religious labels, our church affiliations, or even our theologies. You will recall how Christ was asked how to inherit eternal life? He responded by saying nothing about doctrine but commanded us to love God and our neighbor, and he illustrated that with the parable of the Good Samaritan. As for me personally, I treasure the freedom to entertain all sorts of teachings about matters of faith, respecting most of them, even embracing one here and there, although I do have some difficulty with those expressions of Christianity - whether Catholic, Orthodox, or various forms of Protestant fundamentalism - which argue dogmatgically that there is only one true religion and it is theirs! I revere God enough to believe that God is beyond the comprehension of our finite minds. As Harry Emerson Fosdick once said: "I can only believe in a God I cannot understand."
My own paternal family was French-Canadian Catholic a couple generations ago and became Protestant. My late and beloved wife was Catholic, attended parochial school and such, but had abandoned Catholicism by the time we had met and were married. Frankly, she became strongly Protestant (liberal Protestant, if you will), in part perhaps because she had some painful memories of the nuns from childhood, but also because, like me, she enjoyed discussing different faiths without feeling limitations on exploring and even smiling upon different beliefs. For example, she never embraced Buddhism, but she admired much about it. She also admired the Bahais as well as Unitarianism, etc. At the same time, she sought to follow those teachings of Christ that spoke of other flocks, focused on reaching out to the poor and others in need, and espoused other principles found particularly in the Sermon on the Mount (peace etc.).
My question? What is the position of Catholicism today on my Catholic grandparents who became Protestant, and, more important, what about my wife? Could they be in heaven, according to Catholic doctrine? I recall a Catholic priest accusing her years ago of 'living in sin' - that her marriage was invalid - because she had been baptized and confirmed Catholic but was married outside the church, by a Protestant minister. I rather thought that this sort of thinking had disappeared from Catholicism after Vatican II, but the priest's accusation came two decades or more after the Council had adjourned in 1965.
God bless people of every creed, color and country, and may religion become a bridge and not a barrier among us.
Carlan.
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