I am a Baptist and my fiancee is a devout Catholic. We have talked about our future children and have agreed to raise them Catholic. I do not personally want to convert to catholocism but I have been told that the mother must be Catholic in order for the child to be recognized as Catholic? Is this true?? Can our children be raised Catholic if the mother is a Baptist?? Please Help!! Thanks

Sara

-- Sara (sli1029@mail.ecu.edu), January 23, 2005

Answers

um, can't you just raise your kids any way that you want? like if you want to raise them catholic, just raise them catholic!!! sometimes we kind of overcomplicate things, don't we? if you're really concerned that your kids won't "be catholic", that's silly. being catholic is a faith thing, it's not a racial thing. and if for some reason your catholic church doesn't "recognize" the kids as catholic, well, i would say that would be stupid. i don't think the church will do that. anyway, God judges your heart, not man.

-- rina (hellorina@aol.com), January 23, 2005.

No you don't have to become a Catholic. But before marrying you your fiance has to give an undertaking to the priest that he will make every reasonable effort to have the children baptized and brought up as Catholics, and you have to be informed of your fiance's undertaking. Many, many Catholic children have a non-Catholic or even a non-Christian parent.

I assume you are confusing Catholics with Orthodox Jews, who say that a child's mother must be Jewish for a child to be recognized as Jewish.

-- Steve (55555@aol.com), January 23, 2005.