Lutheran wife wants to convert to Catholicism

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Rwirth1

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My wife is Lutheran who revealed to me a few times that she’s interested in becoming Catholic but so far hasn’t been able to take the steps to make the conversion. She’s curious about the process and what level of RCIA instruction she’d need to receive. She was baptized Catholic but received communion and confirmation in the Lutheran church ELCA. As a background note: we weren’t married in the church as I wasn’t practicing at the time but made a strong reversion back to the Catholic church last year and just had my daughter baptized. She does attend mass regularly with me and our children and has been slowly picking up on tradition and practice. If anyone has any insight into this please let me know.
 
Parishes tends to do things differently and, unfortunately, no one here can tell you what your parish will do. Your wife will need some level of instruction so that she understands what the Church teaches and practices. You will need to being your marriage into the Church. And ultimately she will complete her sacraments of initiation.

After Easter make an appointment with your pastor to discuss all of this.

And your prayer and example must be good if they have influenced her this way.
 
Tell your wife congratulations and welcome home! 😉 I don’t know much about this process but I’m sure many others here do. She was baptised Catholic so the process shouldn’t be too great.
 
I agree with making the appointment after Easter. It might be nice though to invite the priest to dinner at your house so that things are more relaxed. Of course, remember, a priest can’t stay long after dinner, but it might create a nice memory for your wife on her faith journey.
 
Should not be a problem. A short trip to the priest house would take care of it. Welcome home. Basically you are a Catholic family.

Your wife does not need to be re-baptised, of course. However, she may need instruction, which you can discuss with your priest. And your marriage too, which probably needs a blessing.

God bless.
 
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Rwirth1 said:
She was baptized Catholic
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Then she doesn’t need to convert; she already is Catholic. The Church doesn’t recognize wandering off, apostasy, conversion, whatever (outside of a couple of weird situations that don’t apply, but people will likely start arguing about anyway . . .)

It shouldn’t take anything more than confession, although she likely needs classes before Confirmation.

hawk
 
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She is already a Catholic. She should speak to your pastor about making her first confession and communion and the two of you should talk to the priest about regularizing your marriage.

For Confirmation your pastor might have her attend RCIA catechesis or your parish might have an adult confirmation program. Talk to your pastor.
 
dochawk said:
It shouldn’t take anything more than confession, although she likely needs classes before Confirmation.
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She never received the sacraments of Reconciliation or the Eucharist. She needs instruction for all of them.
 
Contrary to popular modern misconception, confession is not one of the three sacraments of initiation.

Yes, she needs some instruction for those, but it may not be much . . .

But the point is that she’s Catholic at the moment, and doesn’t need to convert to become Catholic.

hawk
 
dochawk said:
confession is not one of the three sacraments of initiation.
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You’re right. But for those who are already baptized, it comes before their other sacraments of initiation. Candidates will be prepared for this sacrament along with the others they are about to receive. And some level of preparation is needed – see the many, many threads on CAF about how to go to confession, when to go to confession, what to confess, etc., etc., etc.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
But for those who are already baptized, it comes before their other sacraments of initiation.
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Actually, Rome is trying to figure out how to solve this, as it shouldn’t be the case. It is for other historical reasons, not by design or for theology (although “age of reason” explanations have been bolted on).

hawk
 
I had heard this both ways too.

Initially I was told that I had to go to confession to confess sins between my baptism and confirmation/first communion because you can’t receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin (right? I’ve got that right, right?). Then after going to confession, which I willingly did, and don’t regret in the least, they said you actually didn’t have to go.

I would personally feel weird if I hadn’t gone beforehand. But I wondered why we’d heard it both ways and for some reason at the time it didn’t occur to me to ask.
 
Yes indeed, after your baptism, you have to go to confession for Holy Communion if you were baptized as a child, however, let’s say Jones converts and he hasn’t been baptized, then Jones goes and gets baptized and right after he’s at Mass hasn’t comitted any mortal sin and wants to recieve communion, can he? Of course! Because he IS in the state of grace, confession is for the remission of the sins we have comitted after baptism, but baptism itself not only washes original sin but, if you’re being baptized after the age of reason (which is typically 7 but it boils down to when a person is mentally fit to distinguish good from evil) it washes away any personal sin, wether venial or mortal, you may have
 
Sorry, that was in reply to what Pup7 said, it didn’t get the right format i guess
 
Just go to your parish and talk to your priest, he should guide you
 
Also, seems like you should regularize your marriage, as the Church doesn’t recognize merely civil marriages as valid if at least one of the members is baptized (DON’T WORRY, YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET AN ANNULMENT OR ANYTHING, just talk to your priest and he’ll tell you exactly what you need to do and get a proper catholic wedding, you’ll love it)
 
Pup7 said:
Initially I was told that I had to go to confession to confess sins between my baptism and confirmation/first communion because you can’t receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin (right? I’ve got that right, right?)
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Yes, weird with the current setting.

The gap between baptism and confirmation is a recent (in church terms) innovation, a side effect from a disciplinary change in the administration of the Eucharist to flush out heretics.

hawk
 
On our 1 year anniversary I did approach our priest about giving us a marital blessing which he did and we’re planning on having a vow renewal within the church in the next couple years
 
We were married by my uncle who is an ordained protestant minister (although he also went through the Catholic rites of baptism, first communion and confirmation as a child) and had our priest bless us on our anniversary when we came back to the church so it wasn’t just a civil marriage but a Christian ceremony as well
 
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