Should I Invite My Fundamentalist Protestant Family Members To My Confirmation?

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What do you all think? What did you all do? Should I invite members of my completely Evangelical Fundamentalist family to my confirmation this Easter? A most exciting time for me! Even if they’re “anti-Catholic”? After some very nasty e-mails and some negative and derogatory stuff said about my “conversion”, I’m really not so sure at this point. I can just hear the negativity afterwards-----although perhaps it could be an awesome witness to Christ’s Church!!!

Any thoughts?
 
Sparkle,

By all means, invite them. As you said, what a great opportunity to witness.

I was received into Holy Mother Church last April Vigil. It was such a beautiful, but overwhelming experience for me. The church was packed and the whole Mass took just under 3 hours.

Point I am trying to make is, there will be so many things going on, you may not even notice how displeased your family members are. My son was a rabid anti-Catholic last year, this year he wants to be an altar server. (Praise God).

Let your family see your joy and the love of Christ on your face. It sends a powerful message that even an anti-Catholic should not be able to miss.

BTW…Welcome Home and may God continue to bless you with the grace of His love, and pray that the Holy Spirit touches your family as well.

God Bless.
 
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sparkle:
What do you all think? What did you all do? Should I invite members of my completely Evangelical Fundamentalist family to my confirmation this Easter? A most exciting time for me! Even if they’re “anti-Catholic”? After some very nasty e-mails and some negative and derogatory stuff said about my “conversion”, I’m really not so sure at this point. I can just hear the negativity afterwards-----although perhaps it could be an awesome witness to Christ’s Church!!!

Any thoughts?
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Of course you should invite them. They may not respond or outright decline. But so be it.
 
Sorry to be the downer here, but my advice would be to invite your Catholic friends who would be supportive of you, who love Christs’ Church and would really appreciate being at the Easter Vigil.

I know it sounds very warm and fuzzy to invite your family and everything, but honestly, the Easter Vigil is long and I don’t think this is the best way to go about introducing your family our beautiful Faith. They will be bored, won’t understand what’s going on and, yes, they will most likely even mock what’s going on. Imagine going to a function where you don’t understand the language, for 3 hours – that’s how it will be for them.

Don’t get me wrong here, I absolutely love the Easter Vigil and I do understand because I have been the only Catholic in my family for 15 years now and I have learned alot of lessons the hard way. When my last 2 children received their sacraments I didn’t even tell my family. We just had a nice little party ourselves and it was wonderful! There are so many other times when the Holy Spirit opens up opportunities to share our Catholic faith with the family.

Ultimately, you need to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom. Be assured of my prayers also.

God bless,
Debbie
 
debbie m.:
Sorry to be the downer here, but my advice would be to invite your Catholic friends who would be supportive of you, who love Christs’ Church and would really appreciate being at the Easter Vigil.

I know it sounds very warm and fuzzy to invite your family and everything, but honestly, the Easter Vigil is long and I don’t think this is the best way to go about introducing your family our beautiful Faith. They will be bored, won’t understand what’s going on and, yes, they will most likely even mock what’s going on. Imagine going to a function where you don’t understand the language, for 3 hours – that’s how it will be for them.

Don’t get me wrong here, I absolutely love the Easter Vigil and I do understand because I have been the only Catholic in my family for 15 years now and I have learned alot of lessons the hard way. When my last 2 children received their sacraments I didn’t even tell my family. We just had a nice little party ourselves and it was wonderful! There are so many other times when the Holy Spirit opens up opportunities to share our Catholic faith with the family.

Ultimately, you need to pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom. Be assured of my prayers also.
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Nice post…this would be my answer as well since I have already had some of this negative feedback from my family…My grandmother wouldn’t even come to my wedding…
Annunciata 😦
 
I think it depends on how you can handle it. I think you should definately invite them if you can handle the worst case scenario.

Worst case: They’re buttheads and put you down for what you’re doing.

Are you strong enough that you could shrug this off, let them be morons, and move onto the celebration. If so, DEFINATELY!
 
Invite them. Prepare yourself to treat them with loving kindness no matter how they react or what they say.
 
I think there is nothing wrong with giving an invitation… That doesn’t mean they have to or will accept. You will be in my prayers.
 
I wouldn’t. They won’t come anyway. Invite them to the next midnight mass instead. That is a great way to introduce them to our faith.
 
I’m still sticking by my first posted advice of inviting Catholic friends and not burdening your family with choosing. If you do choose to invite them – which I think would just pour salt into an open wound and actually harm their openness to the Catholic faith – it would be charitable to add a note of what they can expect at the Easter Vigil, be sure to add the length and a little explanation/catechesis of what is going to happen. I still say that it is better, at this point, to be a silent witness to your family. Remember also, that this is painful for them right now and rubbing their noses in it will not help. They don’t understand yet that the Catholic Church is Christ’s Church – they will eventually see that through your witness!

God bless,
Debbie
 
If it were my family, I would invite them, but it sounds like my family is much more accepting of these things than yours. I don’t envy you your position.

Ultimately you know them better than anyone posting here, and the decision will be yours. Other posters have put forth great thoughts both pro and con. If you do decide to invite them, I would let them know upfront the length of the service, and the fact that they would be expected NOT to partake of Holy Communion. This might upset them even more, of course.

I suspect you’re in a no win situation. If you don’t invite them, they’ll complain, and if you do…

Perhaps the best is to provide them the out in the invitation. “I know you don’t support my decision, so I will both understand and respect your decision to decline, but as my dearest family you are more than welcome to attend…”
 
I agree with Timidity - invite them.
However, be prepared for refusals and no-shows. I know exactly how you feel in wanting to share this glorious experience with everyone. I did too. But at my confirmation, there were only empty seats where my name tags were. No one came. That Mass was the most wonderful and saddest of my Catholic life.
 
You have received advice and reasons for the difference ideas. This quote is the best for seeing both sides.
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Timidity:
I suspect you’re in a no win situation. If you don’t invite them, they’ll complain, and if you do…

Perhaps the best is to provide them the out in the invitation. “I know you don’t support my decision, so I will both understand and respect your decision to decline, but as my dearest family you are more than welcome to attend…”
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This last paragraph sums up my opinion. It really seems the most charitable way to present an invitation.

Kotton
 
I would only invite those who are supportive. It is enough to take in yourself without having to defend yourself against hatred and oppression.
 
Every Easter Vigil I’ve attended has been SRO, packed to the gills. Those being Baptized/Confirmed sit with the sponsors at the front - so, the extended invited family might be sitting alone, in a packed building, for 3 hours…

Maybe invite them to a reception/dinner after.
 
We invited many non Catholic relatives to our wedding and kids’ baptisms. It opens doors. —KCT
 
When I converted, I, too, struggled with whether I should invite my fundamentalist-oriented family to the Easter Vigil. However, the question certainly didn’t keep me up at night. Ultimately the Easter Vigil was about me being obedient to Jesus Christ. Therefore, whether my family was there to witness it or not was only a minor consideration. Ultimately, I made it clear to my family that they were welcome to attend, but I never gave them any indication that it would mean a lot to me if they were there (even if it did, in fact, mean a lot to me.) Again, for me the focus was on Jesus Christ. At the same time I wanted to be polite and extend the invitation.

In faith,
Fiat
 
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