I was raised Jewish, my husband Catholic. Question about raising our future children.?

Question

More info: We are NOT religious. My original plan was to expose our children to both cultures and holidays without formal religious schooling. I want to do this...the issue is that my husband wants to baptize our kids but I am not sure we are allowed to do that with me not catholic. Anyone know what goes on with this?

PS neither of us are going to convert.

I am not looking for anyone to tell me their faith is better than another faith. In this day and age LOVE HEALTH and TOGETHERNESS should be more important than marrying within ones own faith. Just wanted to know what I was allowed to do. THANKS!!!

Answer 1

You and your husband are allowed to baptize your children even if you are not Catholic. But in baptizing them, you, your husband, and the Catholic godparents are promising to raise them as Catholics.

Exposing your children to both Judaism and Catholicism is a good idea. But without you or your husband being religious and without any formal religious education in either faith, I don't think you children will grow to appreciate anything.

I am not wise enough to give you a quick and easy answer to your dilemma.

I think you and your husband need to have a heart to heart about the way you want to raise your children. I suggest you pick one faith to practice as a united family but don't stop the exposure and appreciation of the other.

With love and prayers in Christ.

Answer 2

If your husband is Catholic and wants the children baptized, I think that you should do it. Baptism is an important tradition in the Catholic Church and could not do any harm. If your kids ever did want to know more about their faith later on, Baptism is a preliminary groundwork that will already be laid down. There may be a problem if you were not married in the Catholic Church. However, I am not an expert on this so I would advise consulting a priest. But if you were married in the Church I'm it would not be a problem. Good luck and may God bless you and your family.

Answer 3

As a Catholic marrying a non-Catholic, your husband has already made a solemn promise to do "all in his power" to raise the children in the Holy Catholic Faith. You, as the non-Catholic party, were not asked to make any such promise, but you were made aware of his promise. If you didn't feel you could support him in this serious responsibility, you should not have married him. Having the children baptized is the very first essential step in his being faithful to the promise he made before your wedding.

Answer 4

a) Your kids ARE going to be Jewish. It's up to you to decide if you want to raise them as such.

b) If you want to baptize them, it's not an obstacle, the church accepts converts all the time, and the first christians were Jews anyway, plus, infant baptism shows the church is not choosy, as it will accept even people who are likely to reject in later in life.

If they are circumcized (well, the boys), and raised according to basic mitsvot you probably know better than me, being baptized should not be an obstacle to a basic, modern, Jewish education.

Now, just be careful about how far your hubby wants to take your kids' christian education, both in itself and in regard to how much he's willing to let you expose them to their Jewish heritage. I may be a storm crow, but this is a potential problem that can be foreseen, and would be better nipped in the bud. You don't want an ugly divorce over the way to educate the kids, especially after they are here.

Answer 5

Follow your plan, ensure they know and value the sets of beliefs that lay behind their existence, let them choose when they are old enough. If you are not religious then baptism is inappropriate, if essentially harmless and meaningless (and the church would happily let them be baptized regardless of your own background). They can get baptized, bar mitvahed, or otherwise inculcated into their religion of choice - or none at all - when they have reached the point where it is the most obvious path to them.

Answer 6

If you are not religious you might consider celebrating the fun holidays. There are alot of non-religious people who have Christian backgrounds and celebrate Christmas and Easter because they are fun. I am a non-religious Jew but we always did the fun stuff like Seders and build a succah [sp?]. That would expose your children to some of the traditions without being heavily religious.

Some churches even have Seders just to show their congregations what they are like.

Answer 7

You said you were raised Jewish, so I assume your mother is Jewish and therefore your children are Jewish too.
As I see it, if neither you nor your husband is religious, you can raise your kids without religion. The next logical thing to do is to raise the kids Jewish if indeed you (and therefore they) are Jewish...
By the way, have you ever thought of marrying someone of your own faith? That makes things so much easier....

Answer 8

Yes the Church will permit baptism if one parent is Catholic. The idea of raising them with both faiths is admirable but in the end they will choose.

Answer 9

It will depend on the priest, if they will baptize your kids. But i think thats cool that your future kids will be expose 2 different cultures.In the end your children will choose their own spiritual way.

Answer 10

In the Sikh religion, when children are a little older, they are allowed to choose whether or not they want to go to temple and services. I think you should expose your children to both religions and as they get older, allow them to choose if they with to become baptized or not.

Children should choose the religion that makes them feel closer to god and it may not always be the one their parents have raised them to follow. As we get older be begin to develop our spirituality more but it is when we are young that we have to learn of its variety.