Z
zammos1
Guest
My wife and I were married 10 years ago. Both of us were raised Catholic though I was a practicing Catholic throughout my life (save my college years when I was doing typical college kid stuff) and she was not really involved in the church much past the age of 10.
We were, however, married in the Catholic Church and had all 3 of our daughters (now ages 7, 5, & 2) baptized in the Church. The older 2 attend Sunday School at our local parish and the oldest celebrates her First Communion in 2 weeks.
Throughout all this time, my wife has not been really involved in the our parish at all. While she’s supportive of the kids and their learning in the church, she’s rarely gone to Mass with us (though admittedly, the youngest only recently has behaved well enough to make it through the full Mass so she’s stayed home with her). She’s a spiritual woman, interested in religion, but over the last few years has questioned her faith and understanding in the Catholic faith saying “it doesn’t speak to her”.
For close to a year she had a Jehovah’s Witness come every so often to speak with her despite my objections. Thankfully she came to her senses and came to the same conclusions most other Catholics do with that religion and broke off those sessions going forward.
She’s attended non-denominational services with a friend of hers as a tag-along. No harm there I suppose. But the last 4 weeks she’s attended LDS services on Sunday while I’ve taken the kids to Sunday School and Sunday Mass (including Easter). I like to think I have an open mind and most Mormons I’ve met were nice enough. And despite having Mormons living next door to us as a youth who were weird beyond belief, I had viewed her visits there as mostly harmless.
Then last night she dropped the bomb on me that she’s being baptized in the Mormon church next Saturday. 1 day after our 10th anniversary and 1 week before her oldest daughter’s 1st communion. She’s in agreement that it’s important that the kids are raised Catholic (all of my family and her father’s side of her family are Catholic - no Mormons to be found anywhere) and that they can attend “her church” but also have to continue through Catholic Sunday School and receiving the Sacraments - so, Daddy’s Church or Both.
Suffice to say I’ve done a lot of reading about the Mormon faith the last 24 hours and am scared to death as it relates to the kids. She’s a stay-at-home mom and has a huge amount of influence on the girls as most mothers do. I pray to God that what she said about the girls’ continuation in the Catholic faith plays out down the line. But even today I can see in how she speaks so excitedly about her upcoming Baptism and how they can make new friends at Sunday service and how one of my oldest’s best friend attends the Church and how she’ll be baptized after her 8th birthday in a few weeks, that my kids will gravitate to their mother without having the ability at their young age to understand how that can affect their relationship with their entire Catholic family down the line.
I can’t begin to explain how heartbroken I would be if any of my kids follow into the Mormon faith. I’m in tears thinking about how their wedding day would be not only without me being able to walk them down the aisle but to not even be able to witness it should they marry a Mormon boy in a Mormon temple.
I want my wife to be happy and live a fulfilling life and in all honesty she’s been a new person the last 4 weeks. She’s been better with the kids and our relationship (which is filled with a lot of silence and held-in frustration a lot of the time) has been pretty good this month. But I fear that this could hurt down the line more than I can imagine.
Just had to get this off my chest. If anyone has their own two cents or advice to add to this, I’m all ears. And I’ll definitely need your prayers.
We were, however, married in the Catholic Church and had all 3 of our daughters (now ages 7, 5, & 2) baptized in the Church. The older 2 attend Sunday School at our local parish and the oldest celebrates her First Communion in 2 weeks.
Throughout all this time, my wife has not been really involved in the our parish at all. While she’s supportive of the kids and their learning in the church, she’s rarely gone to Mass with us (though admittedly, the youngest only recently has behaved well enough to make it through the full Mass so she’s stayed home with her). She’s a spiritual woman, interested in religion, but over the last few years has questioned her faith and understanding in the Catholic faith saying “it doesn’t speak to her”.
For close to a year she had a Jehovah’s Witness come every so often to speak with her despite my objections. Thankfully she came to her senses and came to the same conclusions most other Catholics do with that religion and broke off those sessions going forward.
She’s attended non-denominational services with a friend of hers as a tag-along. No harm there I suppose. But the last 4 weeks she’s attended LDS services on Sunday while I’ve taken the kids to Sunday School and Sunday Mass (including Easter). I like to think I have an open mind and most Mormons I’ve met were nice enough. And despite having Mormons living next door to us as a youth who were weird beyond belief, I had viewed her visits there as mostly harmless.
Then last night she dropped the bomb on me that she’s being baptized in the Mormon church next Saturday. 1 day after our 10th anniversary and 1 week before her oldest daughter’s 1st communion. She’s in agreement that it’s important that the kids are raised Catholic (all of my family and her father’s side of her family are Catholic - no Mormons to be found anywhere) and that they can attend “her church” but also have to continue through Catholic Sunday School and receiving the Sacraments - so, Daddy’s Church or Both.
Suffice to say I’ve done a lot of reading about the Mormon faith the last 24 hours and am scared to death as it relates to the kids. She’s a stay-at-home mom and has a huge amount of influence on the girls as most mothers do. I pray to God that what she said about the girls’ continuation in the Catholic faith plays out down the line. But even today I can see in how she speaks so excitedly about her upcoming Baptism and how they can make new friends at Sunday service and how one of my oldest’s best friend attends the Church and how she’ll be baptized after her 8th birthday in a few weeks, that my kids will gravitate to their mother without having the ability at their young age to understand how that can affect their relationship with their entire Catholic family down the line.
I can’t begin to explain how heartbroken I would be if any of my kids follow into the Mormon faith. I’m in tears thinking about how their wedding day would be not only without me being able to walk them down the aisle but to not even be able to witness it should they marry a Mormon boy in a Mormon temple.
I want my wife to be happy and live a fulfilling life and in all honesty she’s been a new person the last 4 weeks. She’s been better with the kids and our relationship (which is filled with a lot of silence and held-in frustration a lot of the time) has been pretty good this month. But I fear that this could hurt down the line more than I can imagine.
Just had to get this off my chest. If anyone has their own two cents or advice to add to this, I’m all ears. And I’ll definitely need your prayers.
