Wife becoming Protestant, I'm staying Catholic

[Luvtosew]

I am a Methodist in RCIA but my understanding when I read the Catechism is that before I knew in my heart that the Catholic Church was on the one Jesus started I was fine as a Prostestant believer. Once I knew in my heart which was last May that the Eucharist was for real, I believe from that point on I could be held responsible for not acting. Until that conversion of heart, I do not believe I was responsible, even married to a cradle Catholic who attended the Methodist church with me all these years and we raised two wonderful Prostestant daughters. Neither one of us got it actually because my husband was so poorly catechized. Once I got it and also started praying the Rosary the first thing that happened after my joining RCIA was the reversion of my husband who is now my sponsor so miracles do happen thanks to the best prayer partner! One thing I am learning is sadly how few Catholic I know actually know their faith- maybe your wife is one of them and maybe once she falls in love with Jesus in the contemporary worship setting she will be led to dig deeper and the truth will bring her back- I will pray for that. There are good things us Bible believing praise and worship Protestants have to bring to the Church once we join or return I believe and as St. Paul reminds us all things come together for good. I do believe your family will be back on the same page better than ever- if it happened for my husband and I it can happen for anyone!

God Bless,

Val

Wow beautiful Post.

 

[Hmgbrd]

I think that this turn of events is an opportunity for both of you to learn more about your own beautiful faith. The more I learn, the more I appreciate and love Catholicism. Believe me if you ever were on the “outside looking in” you would understand me. I am praying that your wife learns to appreciate what she has in you, the children and the Church. Get in the habit of reading the “bible verse of the day” that you can find in your daily missal or online. ray together. I would suggest that you research to find bible study groups available through your parish or through other parishes in your dioceses. There is one Catholic non profit organization sanctioned by the Church with downloadable audio and video lectures available online with top notch speakers and interesting topics. It is called the Institute of Catholic Culture and is devoted to enriching the cathecism on an adult level that you started as a child. A young dynamic Deacon started this organization a few years ago and is devoting his life to it as part of the Pope’s call for new evangelization. I I have been using their information to augment my RCIA classes and reading. Good stuff

Also, try studying the Bible together. Use a catholic version bible. I am a converting protestant this Easter vigil and protestant bibles out there are not exactly the same as the one we use in the Catholic Church. Another tip would be when reading to read the passages in context and not to isolate a few verses to underscore a particular personal interpretation. Finally, biblical scholar Dr. Scott Hahn wrote a book, *Signs of Life *that I found at the Library. It explains the biblical roots of all things catholic. Many cradle catholics that I have spoken to are not clear about this. I learned alot and it made me appreciate so much more. Hope this helps.

 

[Nicea325]

Protestants are classed as Christians. So what your saying we have a bunch of Christians (Several billion protestants) going to hell?

Not very ecumenical of us

Sorr,but Protestants do not total a billion,but Catholics do.

 

[CMatt25]

CMatt,
I think your right, it depends if his wife knew the RCC teaching about leaving the RCC and loosing ones salvation if it would pertain to her, according to the Cathechism.

So in that since ignorace is once again bliss, not liable for what one doesn’t know.

I do disagree with that even tho I"m Catholic as that would involve many people and either people leave the Church to get married to a spouse or becasue they don’t agree with every teaching of the RCC.

Yes I pray they come to some mutual agreement also.

Luvtosew, I think too it might depend on if the wife actually believed the Catholic Church was necessary. She could have been told this, knew it, and still knows the teaching. But still not truly know or be convicted of it to be so in her heart.

But if it means she can not be saved now in her current situation, I disagree too simply on the basis that I’m not going to judge who could not be saved. God bless you and peace.

 

[Nicea325]

Sola Scriptura doesn’t make much sense. The Bible wasn’t codified until the Fourth century. What did Christians do for the three hundred years between the Resurrection and Nicea? Obviously the tradition of the Church plays a pivotal role. If it wasn’t for holy tradition, how would we even know what scripture was?

More important,the whole premise of the Bible-Alone is a late invention and no where taught yet alone considered a “doctrine” or “principle” or a practice for many centuries.

 

[pabloSD]

Right I’m thinking that, since I don’t want to cause more disagreements between my wife and me, I will go with her to her services, while continuining going to Mass by myself.

I will continue to pray for guidance.

 

[Khalid]

If you go to her services, she goes to Mass, or you each go to your own. Don’t give in while getting nothing, and giving an implicit stamp of approval to hell-fire. Or exercise your Biblical authority as spiritual head of the family to make the decision, and make it binding.

You can also practice apologetics, such as done at “Ecclesial Deism” (search Google for it), and attempt to persuade her.

As other posters have pointed out, and I believe the Holy Father himself has, a Protestant who is born a Protestant and is raised to believe that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon, is not a formal heretic, and is far less culpable for being a Protestant, or inculpable: whereas a person who has known the fullness of the Truth of God, and has been a Catholic, and then has defected, is fully culpable for apostasy and heresy. That is, it is better to have never been a Catholic, than to have received the Catholic faith and rejected it (or so I believe: my former religion of Islam said much the same, that the worst punishments in Hell were reserved for those who had accepted Islam hypocritically or had accepted it and then “turned their backs on the truth”, i.e. apostatized). A person who becomes a Protestant after knowing Catholicism shares the same kind of sin as the original “reformers”: a person who is raised a Protestant does not, as they have never known anything else (although my being raised as first secular, and then a Muslim [and not many things beyond Jehovah’s Witnesses hate Catholicism more than “traditional Islam” does] entering in to my teenage years, didn’t keep me from eventually finding the fullness of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the God-man who died for our sins).

 

[Arizona_Samson]

maybe she can attend Mass with the family and still go to the bible study Church.

This won’t work. By attending a church where the Bible is studied the Spirit will reveal to her that the Mass isn’t found in the word of God.

 

[vsedriver]

This won’t work. By attending a church where the Bible is studied the Spirit will reveal to her that the Mass isn’t found in the word of God.

I guess someone forgot to tell the early Christians that. They were celebrating the Mass before the Bible was canonized.

 

[cajunhillbilly]

I guess someone forgot to tell the early Christians that. They were celebrating the Mass before the Bible was canonized.

Amen. the earliest church fathers believed in the Real Presence, but that is another thread. If the wife asks you to go to her church, she should agree to attend Bible Study at your church. This from an Anglican

 

[White_Peony]

That’s fine with me.

Shouldn’t be.

But what worries me is our children. I know I have a duty to raise them Catholic

My parents are divorced and my mom is Seventh-day Adventist. Gosh, you can’t believe how hard it is to hear my little brother believe he is half and half.

Talk with your children about what your wife is doing and remind them they are catholic and explain to them why the Catholic Church is the true Church. Please, please do not let them go to your wife’s church, that’s why we have problems…

 

[Khalid]

Exercising spiritual authority in such a manner could be done from the teachings of any conservative or Evangelical Protestant denomination. To remain consistent with the teachings, the authority would have to be acknowledged and obeyed, or contradiction and cognitive dissonance spring up. It probably could not be (morally) physically enforced, but the absurdity of sola scriptura or other follies could be pointed out: to take the Bible as it is, without an authoritative teacher, the same Bible that demands that authority that she will not accept as being the sole and ultimate rule of faith and life.

The first part is enforced by simply refusing to attend worship services one knows are false (and prohibiting one’s underage children from doing the same) to attempt to please man instead of God. I don’t remember the passage(s), but St Paul spoke on that a lot, as I recall.

 

[Khalid]

This from an Anglican

High-church, low-church, Episcopalian, or Continuing? I’ve seen Anglicans range from more Catholic than post-conciliar Catholics to Reformed fundamentalists to ultra-liberal and permissive Methodist or Spongian Episcopalian!

 

[cajunhillbilly]

High-church, low-church, Episcopalian, or Continuing? I’ve seen Anglicans range from more Catholic than post-conciliar Catholics to Reformed fundamentalists to ultra-liberal and permissive Methodist or Spongian Episcopalian!

I am part of a Continuing Anglican church in Rockwall Texas. you would probably consider us halfway between low-church and high-church.

 

[Khalid]

Continuing Anglicans tend to be liturgical, in my experience. I’ve never seen an “evangelical” (that is, low-church or Reformed) continuing Anglican. Is your church liturgical? If so, it’s high-church (the distinction in “levels of high” being made between high-church and Anglo-Catholics). If it is not, it is low-church. (That is my understanding of “churchmanship”, at least.)

 

[Curious_Seed]

My wife has decided to go to a non-denominational Christian center. She says she wants to focus on reading the Bible only.

Yesterday, she took the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe off our bedroom’s wall. She said that we won’t have any more images other than Jesus and crosses in our home. That’s fine with me.

But what worries me is our children. I know I have a duty to raise them Catholic, because we’re a craddle Catholic family. The children are baptized, we were married in the Church. All of our family heritage and history is Catholic.

How have you dealt with a spouse who left the Church, and how are you raising your small children?
Thanks!
Pablo

Did your wife say she no longer believes in Jesus ?

Did she not say she wants to focus on the Bible, albeit it exclusively ?

She took images down, and did you not say you are tolerant of that ?

Your worry does not seem to rest so much on your wife, as on your children.

You are worried that they will stray from the Catholic Church, presumably in deference to the influence of your wife, by contrast to your own.

Actually, I think you are a fortunate man.

Your wife loves Christ and so do you, and your children are baptized.

May I suggest that as the spiritual head of your family, you engage your wife in a sympathetic manner.

What is her understanding of the Bible, compared to yours - her approach may sharpen your own grip on Truth, and that could serve both of you.

What aspects of Catholic doctrine jade her, and what response would be meaningful to you, if you hypothetically agreed with her - maybe that same response will have meaning with her.

By all means, this is a fertile time for you and her to get clearer about Christianity.

Study the Bible with her - go to her Church [without participating in the liturgy or Communion], if they will allow you.

Stay in contact with her thirst to learn, and your need to lead - and if so - your children will definitely prosper by your and your wife’s love of God.

Please remember, with a fellow believer, that co-operation, not confrontation, is your better choice to seeing the Our Lady of Guadalupe image restored.

 

[pabloSD]

Did your wife say she no longer believes in Jesus ?

Did she not say she wants to focus on the Bible, albeit it exclusively ?

She took images down, and did you not say you are tolerant of that ?

Your worry does not seem to rest so much on your wife, as on your children.

You are worried that they will stray from the Catholic Church, presumably in deference to the influence of your wife, by contrast to your own.

Actually, I think you are a fortunate man.

Your wife loves Christ and so do you, and your children are baptized.

May I suggest that as the spiritual head of your family, you engage your wife in a sympathetic manner.

What is her understanding of the Bible, compared to yours - her approach may sharpen your own grip on Truth, and that could serve both of you.

What aspects of Catholic doctrine jade her, and what response would be meaningful to you, if you hypothetically agreed with her - maybe that same response will have meaning with her.

By all means, this is a fertile time for you and her to get clearer about Christianity.

Study the Bible with her - go to her Church [without participating in the liturgy or Communion], if they will allow you.

Stay in contact with her thirst to learn, and your need to lead - and if so - your children will definitely prosper by your and your wife’s love of God.

Please remember, with a fellow believer, that co-operation, not confrontation, is your better choice to seeing the Our Lady of Guadalupe image restored.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your advice! A great way for me to finish the day, you helped me straighten my toughts! Such a positive way to look at our “situation.” Again, thank you

En Cristo!
Pablo

 

[CMatt25]

Did your wife say she no longer believes in Jesus ?

Did she not say she wants to focus on the Bible, albeit it exclusively ?

She took images down, and did you not say you are tolerant of that ?

Your worry does not seem to rest so much on your wife, as on your children.

You are worried that they will stray from the Catholic Church, presumably in deference to the influence of your wife, by contrast to your own.

Actually, I think you are a fortunate man.

Your wife loves Christ and so do you, and your children are baptized.

May I suggest that as the spiritual head of your family, you engage your wife in a sympathetic manner.

What is her understanding of the Bible, compared to yours - her approach may sharpen your own grip on Truth, and that could serve both of you.

What aspects of Catholic doctrine jade her, and what response would be meaningful to you, if you hypothetically agreed with her - maybe that same response will have meaning with her.

By all means, this is a fertile time for you and her to get clearer about Christianity.

Study the Bible with her - go to her Church [without participating in the liturgy or Communion], if they will allow you.

Stay in contact with her thirst to learn, and your need to lead - and if so - your children will definitely prosper by your and your wife’s love of God.

Please remember, with a fellow believer, that co-operation, not confrontation, is your better choice to seeing the Our Lady of Guadalupe image restored.

What a nice post and Pablo truly seems appreciative.

 

[ComeHome2Rome]

Pablo, as the spiritual leader of your family I suggest do two things: first, put the picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe back in a place of honor in your home - after all, if your wife loves Jesus, then she needs to love his mother too and second, if you’ve not already been doing this: begin reading the Bible (the Catholic Bible Readings of the day) with her & your children each & every day and then teach your family from what was read - use the Catechism of the Catholic Church to help you teach them as needed.

Insist, recommend, suggest or invite your wife come to Mass every week with her family: you & your children even if she decides to attend a non-denominational church on her own.

Also ask questions periodically to get her to think critically, like: where did the Bible come from? (It was compiled & preserved by the Catholic Church) who founded the non-denominal church she’s choosing to attend? When was it founded? (Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church in 33 ad)

Another suggestion, as a couple, attend a Bible Study at your Catholic parish.

My wife has decided to go to a non-denominational Christian center. She says she wants to focus on reading the Bible only.

Yesterday, she took the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe off our bedroom’s wall. She said that we won’t have any more images other than Jesus and crosses in our home. That’s fine with me.

But what worries me is our children. I know I have a duty to raise them Catholic, because we’re a craddle Catholic family. The children are baptized, we were married in the Church. All of our family heritage and history is Catholic.

How have you dealt with a spouse who left the Church, and how are you raising your small children?
Thanks!
Pablo

 

[Curious_Seed]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your advice! A great way for me to finish the day, you helped me straighten my toughts! Such a positive way to look at our “situation.” Again, thank you

En Cristo!
Pablo

Thank you, for your kind words; I appreciate them and you.