What religion would the children be if you have a married Catholic and Jew?

Question

How do you determine what religion to have your child be if the parents are of two different religions and unwilling to convert to the others religion? Do you send the child to both places of worship and let them choose later? Or does the father have more say over the mother? This would apply to any combination of mixed relgion marriages. Let's just say for the purpose of this dicussion that the necessity of conversion in order to be allowed to marry wasn't there.

Answer 1

If they married in the Church, the Catholic already promised to bring up the children Catholic.

Answer 2

1) generally I think both religions would agree that the child needs to be raised one, or the other. attempting to do both, is just... confounding to the whole affair.

2) by "blood" if the mother is jewish, then the child is by default of jewish heritage, BUT they will only BE jewish if raised as such. if the FATHER is jewish, but they are RAISED jewish, then depending on which sect its under, there may or may not need to be something special involved to make up for the fact the mother wasn't jewish. like at my synogogue i'm pretty sure that basically they would be considered jewish, and the bar/bat mitzvah would "legally" serve as a de-facto bet din as well. (the religious "court" that declares a convert to be accepted in and considered jewish) Orthodox might need something more formally arranged as that....

personally I find it disgusting when people try to teach both like some do, not that you shouldn't teach what both sides believe, you can, and should. but to try to celebrate both, is a betrayal of both.

really it depends on which religions it is and how observant each parent is and such.

personally if I were in a cross-religious marrige, I would want to present both belief sets and allow the kid to decide which seems right for them.

I find it interesting how so many are so confident in the truth of their religion, but do not trust the pure-sight, and natural spiritual instincts of a child, unbiased by habit and history and learned-faith.

if its true, shouldn't it be self evident?

whats REALLY interesting imo is how that for some people, their natural innocent instinct would be for any of one of many contradicting views. and everyone assumes that the one they had, or percieve that they had, is the one *EVERYONE* has.

hopefully you'll get what I mean.

Answer 3

In old Judaism laws, the children will follow the mother's religion. However, I don't think they follow that law anymore I think it would something for the couple to talk about before they have children. Perhaps exposing the children to both religions would help the children choose later on. Celebrate both religious holidays and talk to the chidren about it. Teach them that everybody is different and that they have the freedom to choose what religion they want. The parents shouldn't undermine the teachings of Catholicism or Judaism even if they don't agree with it. I think the children will have to decide later on. There are many couples who marry and neither one of them convert because there is no need.

Answer 4

My mother is the daughter of a Catholic and a jew, my grandmother was a mexican catholic, and my grandfather was a russian jew. Actually, it's usually the mother who has influence over the religion of the children, just according to tradition. The church (catholic) wouldn't even let my grandparents get married until my grandpa promised that he would raise the kids catholic. even then, they would only marry them in the hallway of the church. My grandma wasn't very happy about that, but both religions are very strict about marriage and such. my grandpa's relatives threw a fit about it, but eventually came to accept it.

Answer 5

I'm not sure. I was raised Methodist and I married a Catholic. I never converted but we don't have any children yet. I was considering raising them Catholic but I don't want to convert myself. I don't think that is allowed in the Catholic religion. Actually in the eyes of the Catholic church, since we weren't married Catholic, I guess we really aren't married. Yikes!!

Answer 6

If you have a mixed marriage, then usually neither parent takes their religion all that seriously, in my experience. So the children practice neither.

If one parent is more religious than the other, then obviously the more religious parent will take their kids to service with them while the other one stays home and watches TV.

The children will pick their own religion when they grow up anyway.

Answer 7

Typically, the child is raised in the mother's religon. However, this is not always the case. My mother is Jewish and my father is Catholic. They chose to raise my sister and I as Catholics. I know other children of Catholic/Jewish marriages who are raised Jewish, and some who were not raised in any religion at all. It's basically whatever the parents decide to do.

Answer 8

I think of the mom is jewish the kids is considered a jew by other jews. If the dad is, I dont think they are.

I worked for a family, dad was Jewish and Mom was Catholic. Well rather they were raised in those faiths, but didnt practice either. They permitted thier parents to educate their daughter in both faiths and let her make the choice when she becaem an adult.

Answer 9

If a person was that devout in a particular religion, I doubt that he/she would inter-marry.

I would think that the couple would discuss this issue before the marriage, in any case.

A free-thinking couple would probably teach the children the basics of both religions, but not 'bring them up' in either.

Answer 10

If the children are raised within a religious community, it is usually the Catholic community. A Roman Catholic marrying outside their religion must vow to raise the children in the Catholic church.