Two Baptisms?

[Bob Spiers]

There is no doubt my views were wrong on catholic marriages and so I decided to check online and found this site: 'about catholics' which really answers many of my questions. Certainly this is as it now applies I just need to find out if it applied at the beginning of the 20th Century.

 

[Gillian]

I'm glad I've helped, Bob, though I've a feeling that practice varies, depending on the strictness of the local priest or bishop or whoever. I cannot remember at any point my husband's Lutheranism presenting a problem - neither here in Finland nor there in England. As I said, the priests here, who were Dutch, were so good at bending the rules their fingers must have been made of rubber. Obviously the priest in England was their soul mate, particularly considering what happened later. Our children were all baptised as Catholics; our grandchildren have all been baptised as Lutherans or not baptised at all.
....
I wrote the above and then your new post popped in. All is explained.

 

[Susan]

My son married a Catholic in a Catholic church in 2010. Not only did he not have to convert, he was not required to undergo any course on Catholic teaching. Going back several decades, my aunt married a Catholic in 1960 and did convert but my uncle who married a Catholic in 1958 did not.

Going further back to the late 1800s, my great grandfather, a Catholic, married a woman who was not and did not convert, and they married in a CE church. According to my father, the priest kept visiting great grandmother telling her she was living in sin as they weren't properly married until one day gr grandfather came home from work early, found the priest there, lost his temper and converted out of the Catholic church.
Things came full circle as my aunt and uncle were his grandchildren and my son his gr gr grandchild.

 

[Bob Spiers]

After sending for their Marriage Certificate I have now confirmed my paternal Grandparents actually married in an Anglican Church in 1901 and not a Catholic one as I thought was the more likely. Going back a generation I knew my Great Grandmother (the daughter of Irish Immigrants in the 1860's) had married in a Roman Catholic Church in 1879 someone not of RC faith (i.e. Anglican). I had assumed this had been allowed by the conversion of the Anglican to Roman Catholicism. Recent comments in the Forum from people who know more of these matters than I have raised doubts that this may not have been the case. Yet I do know all the children (My grandmother and her siblings) were baptised as Catholics and I believe remained as such although I have yet to check on whether all married in or out of the faith. But I now learn my Grandparents appear to have married 'out of the faith'; or is that the wrong term?

What am I to make now of the fact that my Grandmother faced with marrying someone outside of her faith (just as her mother did before her) chose (or had no choice but) to marry in an Anglican Church? I know the proximity of the birth of their first child and the date of their marriage does not really 'compute' (you get my drift) and wonder if that was what it was all about? Or was it perhaps just the intransigent stance of my Grandfather? Even so I believe all three sons were baptised as catholics even if later the two surviving sons (one my father) went their own ways when they married. My grandmother remained true to her faith to the end and with the RC Churchs' blessing. So what do others think may have been behind the Anglican marriage?

 

[Gillian]

So what do others think may have been behind the Anglican marriage?

"Omnia vincit amor."

 

[AdrienneQ]

Might it just be logistics.
My parents were married in the Methodist Chapel in my mothers village where they were living .
They later had an RC blessing

Mother did not convert but was happy to have us brought up RC, which we were.
Both me sister and I had lapsed by the times of our marriages,

• I married another lapsed RC in the RC church
• and she married a C of E in the C of E church

We have always been very catholic (with a small c) about religion in our family.

 

[Bob Spiers]

"Omnia vincit amor."

Showoff! But I get the message and I think 'hit'; 'nail'; 'head' comes to mind. I understand the nearest Latin to be: "Rem acu tetigisti" (you have touched the point with a needle) but generally accepted as the equivalent of 'You have hit the nail on the head'. Thanks anyway.

 

[Bob Spiers]

Might it just be logistics.
My parents were married in the Methodist Chapel in my mothers village where they were living .
They later had an RC blessing

Mother did not convert but was happy to have us brought up RC, which we were.
Both me sister and I had lapsed by the times of our marriages,

• I married another lapsed RC in the RC church
• and she married a C of E in the C of E church

We have always been very catholic (with a small c) about religion in our family.

Yes I think maybe 'logistics' is the root of the answer. Perhaps I am looking too deep into what was likely decided by circumstance. On top of which I have just discovered Gran's sister -herself catholic marrying someone who was not - also married in an Anglican church 8 years later. There was no issue from this marriage so -forgiving the pun - did not become an issue!

 

[Margery]

We have always been very catholic (with a small c) about religion in our family

Oh, how I agree, Adrienne. I usually avoid any religious topics but this stream has reminded me of friends in my youth who went through unimaginable misery because of the Protestant/Catholic divide. Children were kept away from grandparents and extended family members, they were not allowed to speak to cousins, and so on.
Fortunately there is much more tolerance these days.

 

[cressrt]

When I married in 1980 I had to agree to any children being brought up in the RC faith, I was/am CofE, I did not have to attend any classes or do anything else. I personally believe that any form of " forced indoctrination" is wrong but IMO that is how the RC faith works! However many people I know have rejected their "given" faith because of this.