Evangelizing my family

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Aside from my immediate family, all of my relatives are non-Catholic. Some are atheists, some non-practicing Protestants, and others are staunch, anti-Catholic Protestants.

What sorts of things should I say when speaking with them about the faith? Do any of you have experience in talking to your family about the Catholic Church? What did you do?
 
bookish said:
Aside from my immediate family, all of my relatives are non-Catholic. Some are atheists, some non-practicing Protestants, and others are staunch, anti-Catholic Protestants.

What sorts of things should I say when speaking with them about the faith? Do any of you have experience in talking to your family about the Catholic Church? What did you do?
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Family is the hardest! You might try the book Search and Rescue: How to Bring Your Family and Friends Into, or Back Into, the Catholic Church by Patrick Madrid. It’s got some useful tips.

Remember even Jesus had a hard time converting his family (Mark 6:1-6). Thats is why I like to pray that God will send people into the lives of my family members to lead them to conversion. Sometimes they just won’t listen to you because they’ve known you your whole life (or their whole life).

This doesn’t mean there’s nothing we can do for our family, but it is a lot trickier.
 
Above all, set the best Christian example you can for them. Not sure if they are feisty when you have religious discussions with them or if they are pretty laid back. Your approach will probably vary from person to person. It’s hard to say what you should tell them when it is a very broad subject. Some basic pointers I would suggest would be:
  1. keep your cool
  2. don’t be OVERzealous
  3. realize that some people will never change despite whatever you say or do
Having a good background of Catholic apologetics definitely helps.

Good luck to you in your efforts. 🙂
 
If they’re protestants, they were probably never taught about how important the only church is, get them to read today’s readings, they’re 3 readings and a psalm that protestants can never prove wrong.
 
Try the Green Scapular. Ask some of them if they would simply be willing to wear it, and you could say the prayer on their behalf.
 
My immediate family are pretty much all agnostic and atheist. Several members of my family (now deceased) were Catholic, one was a nun! But since my granddad no one has really shown any great passion for religion.

When I told my mum and little sister they made some silly jokes but on the whole didn’t mind. My life, my choice. As long as I wasn’t hurting anyone it was fine with them. However I do feel awkward watching things like EWTN when they’re around or listening to Catholic music. I’m also planning to go on retreat but am avoiding bringing it up as I don’t want to be made fun of. Silly, I know. I’m slowly getting better about talking about everything to them, but it is really difficult as they don’t get why I believe certain things and as yet I’m not very patient when explaining.

My dad is a devout atheist (yes, devout atheist) and is severely disappointed in me since he found out I was joining the Church. He won’t speak to me about it. At all. (He lives 2 hours away so I don’t see him all that often.) He sort of half asked me about my opinion of Richard Dawkins a month or so ago but another than that he’s not breathed a word. To be honest I don’t want to get into it with him. He’ll call me a stupid, niave little child and try to belittle me (in public) by trying to show me how ridiculous my beliefs are. He obviously doesn’t want to say more on it as our relationship is fractured at best and he’s not really keen to make it worse.

My friends are also either atheist or baptist. The baptist ones are happy for me and are quite good to talk to about certain things. The new friends I’ve made at my church have been fantastic. My atheist friends…haven’t told all of them…they’d react like my dad. I love my friends to pieces and I don’t want this to come between us, if that makes sense.

On the whole I’m taking the coward’s way out, but I don’t start my RCIA for another 12 days, so I’ll see how things progress during the course.

Hope that made sense.

God bless,

Katherine
 
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