Mother taking sisters to Protestant church in lieu of Mass. Help

[Braeden]

Hi, I’m in a bit of situation and I don’t quite know what the correct way to go about resolving it might be. My mother converted to Catholicism when she married my father. Despite mostly being in line with Catholic teaching, there are certain things that she says and does that have never quite sat well with me, such as almost jokingly mentioning that she’s only ever been to confession once. I’ve avoided saying much to her out of respect to her as my mother, but recently she has started to take my two younger sisters to join my Protestant grandmother at her church on Sundays, without attending mass at all. I drew the line at misleading my sisters, so I tried to persuade her that this violates the Sunday obligation, but she just became angry because she claimed she just wanted to spend time with her own mother. I then appealed, privately, to one of my sisters (who is confirmed) that it really would be proper for her to go to mass instead. She agreed, but when she brought this up to my mother, my mom just became angry and forced my sister to go with her anyway. My father is rather non-confrontational when it comes to these things, and while he recognizes it’s wrong, he won’t do anything to step up and and do anything about it out of fear it’ll drive my mother out of the church. At this point I’m more worried about my sisters being misled by their example. I know I should honor my father and mother, but I am quite distraught over this and I don’t know how to handle it properly. What would be the proper way of going about handling this?

 

[Legend]

Where are you and your father when this happens? Can’t your sisters go to mass with one or both of you?
You didn’t share your age, or whether or not you live with your family. But, I’m guessing that if you know this much, you live close enough to invite your sisters to mass. Do it!

 

[stpurl]

Would it be possible for your grandmother to come to Sunday Mass at least some of the time?
And would it be possible to get the priest involved so that he could talk with your mother, on the order of, “I’m so pleased to hear that you’re spending time with your mother and having the children go, but we need you here at Mass as well. We do have Saturday Mass which you could come to, and then go to your mother’s church on Sunday. I know it is hard for you to have all these obligations and I’d just like to be able to help as much as I can. Please tell me, what can I do to help you out?”
Etc.

 

[JMMJ]

You aren’t the parent. Your parent(s) gets to make these decisions, and you should respect their authority to do so.

With that said, it is nice that you are concerned about your sisters. You should dialogue with them, to the extent they are willing, about your beliefs (without denigrating your parents, of course).