I am currently dating a man (for the past 3 years) who is from Serbia and is a nonpracticing Orthodox Christian. When we became serious, I started to tell him how I must be married in the Catholic Church and that my children must be raised in the faith. I was very adamant about this.
…he stopped saying the Catholics were the cause. However, he did inform me that he would never get married in a Catholic church and would definitely not raise his children in this faith. He believed that children should be exposed to all religions and should make their own decision.
I had recently undergone a traumatic experience that may adversely affect my future, and have gone full force in immersing myself in Catholicism. Surprisingly, he has been extremely supportive of this. I have never tried to convert him, as I believe that our religion states we should never impose our religion on to others who are unwilling. Instead, by proclaiming my love for Catholicsim and by “walking the walk,” I have found my boyfriend to begin attending mass with me and being present when I speak to a priest when I discuss my issues. He has now changed his perspective to: “Catholics are very similar to Orthodox Christians, except that Orthodox Christians follow the ‘old calendar.’” I am not sure what the significance of the “old calendar” is, but I feel like he is undergoing a transformation. He also says that Orthodox Christians preserve the way mass is suppose to be (from 2,000 years ago).
…I am pretty confident that my boyfriend’s views on Catholicism is slowly changing. I am grateful that his admiration for Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II assists him in changing his views. By talking about their lives and their great impact on the world, I can see that his respect for Catholicism deepens. I am also very confident that if it came to it, he would convert to Catholicism to marry me.
I apologize to the OP, because I will digress from the primary thread a bit.
Crystal, you should be aware that Old Calendar EO Churches tend to be rather hostile towards Catholics, and even towards New Calendar EO. This could cause a problem if your boyfriend meets his Serbian EO priest - he may well be advised to convert you before marriage, or else dump you. At a minimum, you should educate yourself so that you be aware that we Catholics are not heretics as the Old Calendar EO Churches claim us to be. The short story of the Calendar controversy is that a Catholic Pope commissioned the scholars some 400 years ago, to come up with an astronomically more accurate calendar than the Julian Calendar that has been effect since the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. The new calendar has been named Gregorian Calendar after the name of the Pope, and the Catholic countries adopted it some 400 years ago. In the EO world, the Patriarch of Constantinople, as well as the Greek, Romanian, and Bulgarian EO Churches adopted it in the early 20th century. However the Russian, Serbian, Macedonian EO Churches stayed with the Old (Julian) Calendar and accused the New Calendar EO churches of following a Papal innovation and heresy, that of the New Calendar. To them, anything “new” and “innovation” is synonymous to “heresy”, especially if it comes from the Pope. Catholic and New Calendarist “heresies” include, in their view, the use of musical instruments including the organ, the presence of pews in churches, and chiefly the New Calendar. Old Calendar EO Churches feel so strongly about the issue that they advise their members not to take communion in New Calendar EO Churches. My Russian EO acquaintances, for example, would rather drive to a Russian Old Calendar church two states and three hours away, than attend the local Greek EO New Calendar church.
Maybe your boyfriend will not fall for this attitude, but at any rate this is the official position of his Church.
orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/soc_wcc.aspx
Another issue is the liturgy. EO Churches use mostly the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (4th c.), and sometimes the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle. Catholic Churches use more than these 2 liturgies: the Roman Catholic Church uses the Novus Ordo Mass (Vatican 2) and the older Tridentine Latin Mass (16th century? I’m not sure). Eastern Catholic Churches such as the Greek and Ukrainian use the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and St. James (just like the Eastern Orthodox Churches), whereas the Melkite, Maronite, and other Catholic Churches have their own liturgies that are different from the previously mentioned. Alltogether, more than 10 different liturgies are in use in the Catholic Churches, and all are considered by our Church as fully legitimate and fully appropriate forms of worship. The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, used in the Eastern Orthodox and in some of the Eastern Catholic Churches, is beautiful. But don’t let anyone, be they Eastern Orthodox or Traditional Roman Catholics, tell you that any other liturgies in use by the Catholic Churches, such as the Novus Ordo Mass or the Tridentine Latin Mass, are inappropriate or heretical. Btw, you probably attended a Tridentine Latin Mass (traditional Catholic Mass). You might as well wish to visit an Eastern Catholic Church if there is any in your area, they have the same Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom that your boyfriend’s Serbian Orthodox Church has, and it’s beautiful. The real important difference between Orthodox and Catholics is not the liturgy, but rather that we accept the Pope, while they reject him.
Good luck and God bless you both on your journey! Hold on tight to the Catholic Church and its Truth - it’s God’s full revelation and true Church, free of errors. ANY other Church or denomination can only give you a partial truth, mixed with errors.
It does seem like he is going out of his way to be a good husband, and try to get back on track. People change in marriage. It would be bliss if both people changed in the same direction…evolving, but this is not happening here, yet. I have hope. 
Either way, Ignatius, if your wife never agrees with the Catholic Church teachings, still try to be a loving husband. It’s all you can do. You can’t do her part, also. At some point, she’ll either love you back, FOR YOU, or she won’t. 
But, you can only offer your love. You can’t BE the entire. marriage, you can only be one half of it. She has to be the other, for it to work. However you both get there, is up to you. I don’t believe your newfound ‘faith’ should dismantle a marriage…that’s just my two cents. I speak however from the camp of marrying someone who was a cradle Catholic as myself.
but thot I would post my 2 cents worth.