Yes she tells me her Christmas is Jan 7th. She tells me that she cannot always go the mass because she has moved around alot and does not live near a Russian Church.
Orthodox is Orthodox. She should attend any Orthodox church nearby, but that’s between her and her Spiritual Father.
She is a American convert who, at the invitation of a Russian friend she met about 5-10 years ago became a Russian Orthodox. I am already sensing and anti-roman catholic vibe. She told me her paternal grandmother is a catholic fanatic. I asked her why she left her catholic faith and she told me that she has a problem with the priest’s greed (I honestly don’t know what priests finances are, but I don’t think they live in luxury)and that Catholics keep changing things like the wording in the Creed.
Well, the Roman Catholic change in the Creed is a huge stickler for Orthodox, and obviously I don’t know her previous situation with RCism. However, many RC priests aren’t bad off, but it’s reasonable to expect that they shouldn’t be lol. They get their wage, but they often have their housing and maybe a car paid for by the diocese, and they don’t have a wife or children to provide for. Always bugged me when people complained that their priest had an iPhone and fancy appliances. What else does he have to spend money on? lol.
I am trying to understand her Faith so that I can have an honest relationship with her but I am getting alot of strange information that I just can’t sort out.
This is normal between our churches. A lot of Roman Catholics assume Orthodoxy is very similar, and in some ways it is, but in many ways its drastically different. Orthodoxy doesn’t categorize sin as mortal or venial, it doesn’t have Holy Days of Obligation or the Sunday Obligation. Some believe you should go to Confession before every Eucharist, many do not. Contraception is not automatically a sin. Fasting guidelines are not followed strictly by everyone, and that’s ok. Icons are held in much higher respect than even statues in the Roman Church. We think it’s harmful to try and define and nail down just when a Sacrament occurs, how it occurs, to define The Trinity, or a host of other situations. So it can be very confusing and different for Roman Catholics.
Mostly, I wonder why a devout Russian Orthodox would form a serious dating relationship with a Catholic?
She might like him. Many Orthodox I know do not date outside The Faith, it’s too difficult, But I have a Godbrother who is dating a Roman-Catholic-Maybe-Agnostic and going to ask her to marry him, and he’s very devout. It’s hard to find faithful, practicing Christians, and Orthodox aren’t allowed to marry non-Christians. She probably likes your son, and likes that he talks about faith and Christianity at least some. She may be in a slump in her spiritual life herself and finds it comforting to be with someone in the same situation. Orthodox can marry Romans. I just assisted as one such wedding a few months ago. Those weddings have to take place in the Orthodox church though - even your own documents suggest this.
Why she talks about seeing spirits all the time?
No idea. You said though that it’s something she got from her Italian relatives. She might just see them and ignore them. That would be a gray area, since she’s not trying to speak to them.
Why she left the catholic faith
You’d have to ask her.
Why, as devout religious person, she has no problem living with my son and claiming to sleep on the couch?(Sorry I’m just not buying this)
Weeeellll…this
could be a generational thing. My wife and I, for example, are both devout Orthodox. For our engagement we went to San Francisco and stayed in the same hotel room (though in different beds). We slept next to each other on many occasions with nobody else around. We were both virgins on our wedding night. I could possibly believe friends of mine if they told me they weren’t sleeping together but they were living together. I’d caution them against it, however. You, also obviously, know your son better than I do, and presumably know her better as well.
Are Russian Orthodox ok with cohabitating if they are planning to marry?
It’d be something they’d have to discuss with their priest. In general I’d say no. A big no. She may, however, be in the small area where the answer could be “yes” for some reason.
From what I’ve heard, in Russia yes. A convert in America, much less likely. This, though, is like asking “are Roman Catholics superstitious?” Well, yeah, you’re gonna find some who are.
Are they anti-catholic in general?
You’d have to define “anti-Catholic.” For example, we don’t believe the pope is the head of The Church, or that he’s infallible, and we believe Roman Catholics have done a lot of bad things to us and the Eastern Catholics (and I know we’ve done the same back). We don’t believe Roman Catholicism is Christ’s Church. None of that I would describe as anti-Catholic, it’s just the way it is. It’s our beliefs. Anti-Catholic to me would mean you don’t like someone just because they’re Roman Catholic. In general to that I would say no. Most could probably care less about Roman Catholicism. It doesn’t come into our lives very often.
