catholicsphere

My wife received a call last night asking for advice for a Catholic mother who’s daughter has joined an Protestant church. A little background revealed that the mother didn’t attend Mass regularly, and didn’t really take her faith all that seriously. Yet, she was furious at her daughter, wanting her grandchild to be baptized, etc in the Catholic Church, rather than “dedicated” in this Protestant church.

It is always sad when I hear that someone has left the Church. However, based on what I heard (and I’ve witnessed similar situations first hand) , it sounds as though the daughter has a stronger, more committed faith now. If that is true, then I do praise God for it. With the mother not really practicing her faith, and perhaps her daughter not previously practicing either, it’s tougher to think that the daughter “left the faith” because there was really no faith to leave.

This emphasized the need for people to practice the faith. It appearst hat this mother did not provide a good model for living the Catholic faith, so it is not surprising that her daughter did not see the need or necessity to live the Catholic faith either.

My advice to the mother would be to begin practicing the Catholic faith, read her Bible and know the faith so that she can begin to understand what her daughter has found and was/is looking for. Only by being informed can she help her daughter to come to the fullness of faith of the Catholic Church.