Last weekend, we posted a question from EPG, an Anglican reader of YIM Catholic. The question was, Do Catholics go overboard with Mary? Thirty of you answered, in a comment thread that is a virtual encyclopedia of Marian experience. Now here’s another question that some would-be converts might ask, and it’s not an easy one. It’s a question for those received into the Catholic Church as adults with a husband or wife who is not Catholic, not interested in Catholicism, or perhaps even hostile to Catholicism:EPG asks: “How did you handle questions, biases, anger, misinformation, etc., in the middle of your own discernment? Did resistance, opposition, confusion, feelings of hurt or betrayal from a husband or wife create difficulties in your process of discernment and reception? How did you address the issues that did come up?”
Even if you aren’t in this narrow category, even if you’re a cradle Catholic married to another Catholic, I think you can shed some light on this for EPG. From my own experience, as a convert married to a cradle Catholic, I know that whenever two spouses practice their faith(s) in differing ways, it can create tensions in a marriage, sometimes simply through misunderstanding: She thinks she’s so devout! He thinks I think he’s not devout. . . .
So here’s message one for EPG: Converts discerning about Catholicism should not feel alone in this.
Your thoughts, readers?
