How can I be submissive to a non-Catholic husband?

[Choyt0312]

There are many verses in the Bible that imply the husband is the spiritual leader of the home. How are Catholic wives, married to non-Catholic husbands, supposed to submit to their husband in spiritual matters when they do not agree? We do have children that are baptized Catholic and I plan on them receiving their other sacraments, but I feel like I’m not being submissive to my husband by doing that when he doesn’t want us in the Catholic Church. I know that I should be submissive to my husband, but does that mean that I abandon my beliefs to do so? Am I sinning by continuing to go to the Catholic Church even though my husband does not want me to? Would I be sinning if I stopped going to the Catholic Church because then I would be submissive to my husband?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I’m afraid that you have picked up a Fundamentalist Protestant understanding of “wifely submission,” possibly from your non-Catholic husband. In the Catholic tradition, wives are not required to “submit” to their husbands in the sense of bending to the will of an overlord, especially when it comes to matters of religious principle. Wives are supposed to be in relationship with their husbands as is the Church to Christ. Husbands are supposed to serve their wives, as Christ serves his Church. What this means is that your husband has no authority to order you to abandon your Catholic faith, or to manipulate you in any other way. If anything, he should facilitate your ability to worship as a Catholic and to raise your children Catholic, because in doing so you follow Christ.