Non-accepting family

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Mal.Kate11

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I am 16, (a sophomore) and was raised Baptist. My family is kind of anti-Catholic. I converted to Catholicism the summer of my 8th grade year, while I was in Spain with my exchange student (A). My family was not there, I stayed with A’s family. During the summer months, I confessed to A’s mother that I was feeling led by The Spirit to look deeper into The Faith. She gladly helped me through all that needed to be done. Fast forward, I get home and don’t tell my family everything about me converting. (This was a big mistake on my part) Now, they ‘attack’ me every chance they get, the most recent one being not allowing me to attend Mass. They argue and argue with me about the Bible, Purgatory, Infant Baptism, Intercession of Saints, and Confessing to a Priest. It saddens me because though I try to explain what I so firmly believe, I am met with aggression and denial. Do any of you have helpful articles/things to say to them? They accuse me of “adding things to the scriptures” when in reality I’m just reading what’s there, and they’re the ones who have several books missing in their Protestant Bibles. Please, I’m loosing hope here.
God Bless you all.
 
Firstly, I think you need to understand your family’s point of view. Your friend’s mother hugely overstepped the mark and acted very inappropriately by bypassing your parents in that way. Your family must be incredibly hurt by it. The religion they sincerely believe in and wanted to raise you in, and that’s not happening - it’s a difficult thing for them to really come to terms with.

If your family now does not want you to go to Mass, you ought to listen to that. You are still a minor and you do need to respect your parents’ wishes.

If I were you, I would try sitting down with each person, one on one, and have a calm conversation. Apologise for the hurt they feel. Discuss your faith journey and where you are, let them do the same. Hopefully you can get to a point where you can agree to disagree, or just put the topic on ice, since it upsets you all so much.
 
OP, did you actually covert by way of attending classes and being confirmed during the summer? Or do you mean you went to mass and you liked it and want to become Catholic?

Either way, as a minor, you need to abide by your parents wishes until you are of legal age and not living in their home.

You are free to watch videos and pray the rosary I would assume. You can do that quietly. No need to have big deep religious discussions with your parents, you know their feelings.
 
I took classes -and was confirmed- of course. I wouldn’t have said that I became Catholic otherwise.
I know that I have to “abide by their rules”. All I was asking was for verses to help me explain to them the Catholic point of view.
I am forced into said “big deep religious discussions”, so there is a need.
 
I understand their point of view, and I respect it. A’s mother actually did speak with my mom about it beforehand, and my mom agreed for me to go to the classes. This is part of why it was so confusing to me that my mom had such a big blowup about it when I got home. She knew the classes led to confirmation, and over the phone did not seem to have problems.
What I mentioned above about me not explaining it to them once I returned was more about I didn’t go through the entire belief system with them. They knew I was confirmed. Thanks for your suggestion!
 
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Mal.Kate11 said:
All I was asking was for verses to help me explain to them the Catholic point of view.
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Bring up this one:

James 5:16 - “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another…”

Maybe try asking them where exactly they’re doing that, and when the last time they did that was.

They may try to say “Well, in context the verse actually means…” But that’s when you say: “The Bible states clearly 'Confess - your - sins - to - one - another.” It’s a very clear command in Greek and English, which I don’t believe Baptists adhere to (despite their claim to follow all the Bible and not make “interpretations”).
 
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Lou2U said:
Your friend’s mother hugely overstepped the mark and acted very inappropriately by bypassing your parents in that way.
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No she didn’t. She simply guided the OP in her own questioning. Nothing wrong with that unless you believe that other faiths are equal to Catholicism.
Irishmom2 said:
Either way, as a minor, you need to abide by your parents wishes until you are of legal age and not living in their home.
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That doesn’t include if parents are preventing someone from practicing the faith. A baptised catholic has an obligation to God over parents.

16 is old enough to make a decision to be Catholic. My wife was baptised at 16 as well. She knew what she was doing and also faced some opposition from parents.
 
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AdamP88 said:
That doesn’t include if parents are preventing someone from practicing the faith. A baptised catholic has an obligation to God over parents.

16 is old enough to make a decision to be Catholic. My wife was baptised at 16 as well. She knew what she was doing and also faced some opposition from parents.
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I with the first sentence. If we are able, we should continue to practice.

But isn’t a minor need (written?) parental agreement to receive a sacrament of christian initiation?
 
Mal.Kate11,

I am septical toward the effectiveness to debate to strong divergences on Catholic/Protestant views when the climate at home is already cloudy and the parents very hurt and feel betrayed with their child’s new conversion.

It can easily come to a difficult fight and more resentment of both parts. But you know that.

But if they really want discussion on religious grounds, I will recommand you to have a look on the “bible” of catholic apologetic, written in 1988, by Karl Keating, who is the founder of Catholic Answers. Catholicism and Fundamentalism: the attack on romanism by Bible Christians.

This book will answer the main objections raised typically by Evangelical Christians, such as on Infant Bapstism, Bible inspiration, the intercession of the Saints, the devotion to the Virgin Mary, Mass, papacy, confession, the Justification.

This is golden, and this knowledge is a must need for Catholics who are surrounded by Protestants who are in good faith hostile to Catholicism. I think the average people will learn something he didn’t before.

God bless you.
 
I have similar concerns about “religious” matters in my family of origin. I’m the 4th son of 6 boys. The oldest likes to “rule the roost”. He makes leading statements, which wind up being a “wild goose chase”. As I see it, my brothers are protecting their “pride”. That’s the problem. As Jesus warned us: “don’t scatter your pearls, before swine, lest they be trampled underfoot”. For the time being, I’m going to insist, they use verses and discuss issues, based on those.
 
Anicette said:
But isn’t a minor need (written?) parental agreement to receive a sacrament of christian initiation?
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It wasn’t required for me, no one asked for it. That might be because I received it in Spain, though.
 
AdamP88 said:
16 is old enough to make a decision to be Catholic. My wife was baptised at 16 as well. She knew what she was doing and also faced some opposition from parents.
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Hearing about someone else in a similar situation is very encouraging. It’s nice to know someone else dealt with this and got through it.
ReaderT said:
Maybe try asking them where exactly they’re doing that, and when the last time they did that was.
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This verse is going to be one of my new go-to passages when my family decides to “discuss” Confession. Thank you!
Also, thank you for replying with a verse (name removed by moderator)ut along with everything else you wanted to say about this!
 
God made us to desire a reward. Rest assured your family members have their reward. It’s what they want for themselves. You can’t argue with that. If you “deny” them, the reward they want for themselves, they’ll deny you yours. The difference is: you want an Eternal Reward; theirs is temporal - they seek it in this world… Best wishes on finding the Peace, you so desire. Martin
 
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