Catholic friends?

[MataHari29]

I am 7 mos pregnant, married to a Protestant, very new to Catholicism, work at a Catholic church (prof organist), and have discovered I have zero Catholic friends to be a godparent to my offspring.

The bigger question I face is–should I purposefully acquire Catholic friends because they are Catholic? The friends I have are from my line of work and are wonderful people who, despite not even following any religion, are intrinsically ethical and moral. I certainly would not drop those friendships. But should I seek out to acquire Catholic friends? It feels artificial to do so–like collecting specimen. And yet, I do wonder. My upbringing was incredibly unconventional by a mentally ill parent, so I don’t automatically click w communities per se but specific individuals.

Thoughts?

 

[1ke]

Talk to your pastor about who in the parish might be able to sponsor your child at their baptism.

 

[Viki63]

I invited an older lady to coffee and made friends. Then I joined a weekly Bible study, and met several great people. Is there anything like that at your parish?

It wouldn’t be artificial to look around your parish, at mass maybe, and see if anyone looks congenial. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but sometimes people would be honored to be asked to hang out for a bit. I think it’s normal to want friends who share your interests, so why not acquire Catholic friends? Then if you have a need, you have someone you could ask to pray with you. I wouldn’t expect to acquire masses of new friends, but maybe one or two.

 

[Inquiry]

Who helped you through RCIA? Do you still have any connection to them?

 

[MataHari29]

No one, actually. I did not go thru the entire process as I was --very nominally–of another denomination so my pastor fast-tracked me past the whole thing where I just boom and converted in one go and that’s it.

 

[CoffeeCatholic]

I like the idea of checking with the priest to see if he has ideas and options. (I never seemed to have normal situations in our life when it comes to confirmation, weddings and baptisms. But talking to the parish priests and then sometimes, going back to my hometown childhood parish priest brought us answers and ways to work around special situations.)