Catholics in Protestant Families

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pismopal said:
I raised my family as protestants, although not rabidly and certainly not anti-Catholic. I converted to the Catholic Church when I was 58 years old and so far I am alone in my decision. My wife goes to another “denom” and I go to Mass alone but not lonesome. I would no more go back to my old beliefs than I would move to Saudi Arabia. I will defend my decision to any in the family who want to bring up the subject but most rarely do and I mostly leave it alone. I made my mind up after a lot of reading and searching so I don’t expect that my feeble apologetics will convert anyone else.🙂
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Praise the Lord! I was brought up in a very religious evangelical family and I brought my 6 kids up the same. After retiring I did a lot of reading on the internet about the early church fathers. The result being that I became convinced that the catholic church is the church that Jesus founded. I started going to mass every Sunday at Easter 2006. Went to RCIA classes and became catholic Easter Vigil 2007. I am so happy being a catholic. Recieving communion brings me so much strength . My story is much longer but I am satisfied and fulfilled now I am in His church.

God Bless you and all that have found the fullness of the truth.
 
I’ll be starting RCIA this fall. I’m pretty sure I’m the first Catholic in my family since the Reformation. (One of the family heirlooms is a Swedish Bible, from the early 18th century)

It’s odd, and sometimes I’m made to feel as if I’m doing some mean thing. My grandmother has the hardest time about it, and occasionally makes me feel guilty about it, as if I"m tearing the family apart.
My dad likes to make snide remarks about not being constrained by any ‘church,’ 1 Timothy 3:15 notwithstanding.

It’s been fun.
 
PHX_Paul said:
Are there any Catholics out there who are alone in a Protestant family?

I am.

My father is essentially unchurched and hostile to organized religion in general. There are Masons and Mormons on his side of the family. My mother was a Baptist but converted to Lutheranism. I have two sisters that are nominal Lutherans. Another sister is a former Southern Baptist and is now a fundamentalist evangelical Christian. She is the most " testy" when it comes to Catholicism.

I would like feedback and maybe some moral support from others in a similar situation.

Paul:eek:
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I grew up in a non-practicing Methodist family and my grandparents were Methodists. My mom hung crucifixes over our beds, but that was pretty much the extent of religious life at home. My dad is a retired biology teacher who can be described as agnostic at best (he comes from that stoic generation and doesn’t really express himself much).

I think when I was baptized, confirmed, and received first communion at 23 my family thought I’d gone off the deep end. I don’t need to tell folks here that there is a lot of confusion out there about the Catholic Church.

Anyway, I married a great, orthodox Catholic girl and we have a 2 week old baby… I look forward to raising the first generation of Catholics in my family!

Oh, and I live in Mormon Utah County… who’d-a thunk-it… and I tell them that you can’t convert a convert… we studied too much!!!

Fight the good fight, praise God for His Church!

RAR
 
Married with 3 children, we are about to go through RCIA. No Catholics on both sides of the family. My brother is an ordained minister of a non-denom church. I know our family is going to be shocked. I am wondering if they are going to try to “de-program” me at some point when they find out.
Need lots of prayer.
Lizferg
 
I’m the only one. I was raised a practicing pentecostal and my parents and all but one of my brothers are practising pentecostals. One feels called to ministry.

I don’t expect my conversion to go down well - they’re the “whore of babylon” type and have huge problems with Mary.

The one brother that is not a practicing pentecostal accepts much of the truth of the bible (He downright refuses to ever get a tattoo… just in case that is how the mark of the beast comes about.) is probably going to be the one who accepts it the easiest. He gets my dis-satisfaction with the pentecostal movement been judgemental and nasty. It’s why he hasn’t converted yet.
 
Yes. My dad’s side is completely Protestant, and on my mom’s side of the family, the only ones who Catholics are my cousin and her family, and that’s only because she married a Catholic. So on my dad’s side, it is just me, my cousin, and my dad as we all came into the Church last year.

Needless to say, the entire family was pretty appalled that we went Catholic on them…but for the most part I think everyone has taken it well in their own way. The ones that will never understand, and know they won’t understand, just remain silent to us about it, and the ones who aren’t completely closed off to the idea have asked us some questions about it.
 
I’m another who is probably the first Catholic in hundreds of years. My husband’s father’s family is Catholic, but they live in another state and most of them are fallen away.

My mom and dad aren’t very religious and they are fine with my conversion. My brother and SIL, and their kids, are very involved with their Presbyterian church. In fact, when I was first looking into rejoining Christianity after a long absence, I put my then-baby son into the mother’s morning out program at their church, and then into their 2-day-a-week structured playschool. I think my SIL, especially, was hoping I’d join their church, and they thought it strange I joined the Catholic Church instead. But they’ve been fine about it. Aside from acting a little scared to discuss what it is we Catholics “do” 😉 it hasn’t been a problem.

My husband’s dad is a former Catholic who is kind of bitter about the Church and tends to make the occasional disparaging crack. His wife (not my husband’s mother - they divorced) is a New Ager. Again, they think it is strange I ‘went Catholic’. But they’re mostly nice about it.
 
wisdomseeker said:
Rejoice! rejoice!
just imagine how did 12 men facing nations of umbelievers and paganism 2000 years ago.

pray for your persistence and love for Christ’s Church.
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Good point! I am not being told to renounce my faith with the threat of imprisonment, torture or being burned alive. I don’t think I have the grace to confront or endure any of those options courageously- I lose it every time I get a migraine! About the only indignities I have endured are being served beef stew on the
3rd Friday of Lent and meatloaf on good Friday!

Paul
 
PHX_Paul said:
Good point! I am not being told to renounce my faith with the threat of imprisonment, torture or being burned alive. I don’t think I have the grace to confront or endure any of those options courageously- I lose it every time I get a migraine! About the only indignities I have endured are being served beef stew on the
3rd Friday of Lent and meatloaf on good Friday!

Paul
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
My dad’s family is almost all Catholic, and my mom’s is almost all Protestant. The only exception to the rule on my mom’s side is her stepsister, who is Catholic.

It usually doesn’t cause too many issues(we’ll talk about church, but we just don’t go to the belief side of it), but when doing things like visiting my aunt’s church, it can get testy. One particular sermon on how Catholics added books to the Bible sticks out in my memory.
 
raises hand

Completely Baptist family (as with most southern, AfAm families)… my mum is a minister, which means I’m privy to all sorts of theological “debates” now that I have converted.

So I’m praying for all my fellow brothers and sisters who are going through or have gone through the same thing!
 
wisdomseeker said:
Rejoice! rejoice!
just imagine how did 12 men facing nations of umbelievers and paganism 2000 years ago.

pray for your persistence and love for Christ’s Church.
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thank you! you, paul and many others have a great way of putting things into perspective.

this forum is like an online family isn’t it? how can you not feel affection for everyone (from all different faiths) that share their thoughts on here with sincerity?

you have no idea how comforting your online presence is to those of us stuck in the bible belt!

Love and Peace to everyone on here! :heaven:
 
My husband and I and my nephew and his wife are the only Catholics in the family. I wish so much we were all Catholic. My family is Protestant but no one is attending church. I am constantly praying for the conversion of my 20 year old son. Hubby and I just converted a few years ago so unfortunately son was not raised Catholic.

My hubby’s family is in England. Much like English Guy. Kind of Church of England in name only. Weddings, funerals, etc. Hubby was raised by grandparents and grandmother was anti-religion. Would have had a stroke if she’d found him with a Bible. When we got together, I spoke freely about my faith and somehow we ended up in the Catholic Church. So happy!!!

I think my family is a bit scornful of it and certainly doesn’t “get it”. Oh well. Maybe some day.

Amie
 
jen_fla said:
thank you! you, paul and many others have a great way of putting things into perspective.

this forum is like an online family isn’t it? how can you not feel affection for everyone (from all different faiths) that share their thoughts on here with sincerity?

you have no idea how comforting your online presence is to those of us stuck in the bible belt!

Love and Peace to everyone on here! :heaven:
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Jen-

I agree- This is a great forum. I’m glad that I found it. God is good!

I used to be overly serious but now I am learning to cultivate a sense of humor in dealing with my " eclectic" family, my " eclectic" neighborhood and my sometimes maddening fellow parishoners. A sense of humor is a survival mechanism, especially when the temperature is 110 degrees+! Getting hot under the collar can be deadly! :banghead:

Paul
 
At the moment I’m the only Catholic in my immediate family. I had a cousin (my Dad’s first cousin) who was Catholic, but he’s since deceased. My parents are Southern Baptist (as I was raised), and the rest are Methodist & Beracha Bible Doctrine (a weird non-denomination). My sister has been a lapsed Baptist married to a very non-practicing Catholic. It’s been rather lonely being the lone Catholic in a very Protestant family.

However, there is hope in the air for my sister and BIL!

My sister informed me a few months ago she was attending Church with her very much practicing Catholic MIL! And the other day she asked me about “how long do those Catechism Classes last?” Not to mention, my BIL, who hadn’t been inside a CC, as far as I know, in about 27 years, has been going to Mass with his DW and Mom! I’ve been praying for years for this! :extrahappy: :highprayer:
 
brycelaliberte said:
I’ll be starting RCIA this fall. I’m pretty sure I’m the first Catholic in my family since the Reformation. (One of the family heirlooms is a Swedish Bible, from the early 18th century)

It’s odd, and sometimes I’m made to feel as if I’m doing some mean thing. My grandmother has the hardest time about it, and occasionally makes me feel guilty about it, as if I"m tearing the family apart.
My dad likes to make snide remarks about not being constrained by any ‘church,’ 1 Timothy 3:15 notwithstanding.

It’s been fun.
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Well, my Grandmother converted to Catholicism when she was young, and nobody really liked her converting, even though she was only a second generation Protestant. But if it weren’t for her converting, I’m doubtful that I’d be Catholic, or even in existence right now. So look on the bright side, you probably won’t be the only Catholic in your family for very long… hey, you might even be able to snatch a couple of Protestants in your family in the process of RCIA.

A good book to read, if you can find it, for people fairly new to Catholicism is “Why do Catholics do that” by Kevin Orlin Johnson. It’s a good informer, and it can help straighten out misconceptions about the Church. It’s worked for me in the past in some friendly arguments I had with a couple of my Protestant friends. Plus, it’s got a text cited page that is actually worth reading. Look it up, if you can.
 
I really appreciate everybody telling me their personal stories. It helps knowing that there are others in similar situations.

May Our Lord Bless and Our Lady and St. Joseph and all of the saints intercede for us and our families and our country on this
4th of July!

Have a good, happy and safe holiday!

Paul
 
Oh my gosh. I don’t think I was prepared (even though my mother was “fallen away Catholic” at the time and my father was “anti-Catholic” and my early years were spent in my Protestant family which was very loving to me even though my Catholic grandmother had had me Baptized Catholic as an infant.) Because of this I didn’t think anything of marrying my Protestant husband–whose mother was a Sunday School teacher, whose deceased father was a deacon, whose brother was studying for the ministry, and two close cousins were ministers.

After my husband and I were married, I can still remember the “why-do-you-Catholics-believe” discussions every night. And I can’t help but remember the little cards from the minister cousins that had the little Bible quotes (as if the Bible was unknown to us Catholics.) And I remember feeling so out-numbered when we lived a very short time in the “Bible Belt”. So glad that we moved–it would have been just too opressive to live there under the circumstances.
 
My mother is ex-Baptist, current Methodist, so my mother’s side is all Protestant basically. My sister, my dad, and I are Catholic, and so are most in my father’s father’s family (the only particularly religious one is my hardcore traditional great-aunt, though). My father’s mother (divorced but not annulled from my father’s father) is ex-Baptist, ex-Methodist, current Catholic. so essentially, about half-and-half, but most of the Catholics aren’t that religious.
 
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