In an article which you can read here, a story is told of a man who was arrested for taking his 3-year-old daughter to Mass in violation of a court order which enjoined against him “exposing his daughter to any other religion that the Jewish religion” . But of course there's more to it than that.
As it turns out, the story begins with a marriage between a Catholic man and a Jewish wife, now in the process of a bitter divorce. The wife has been granted custody of the child and has been raising her in the Jewish faith. But the estranged husband had his daughter baptized and sent pictures of the event to his soon to be ex-wife.
Her attorney says, “Number one, it wasn't just a religious thing per se, it was the idea that he would suddenly, out of nowhere without any discussion … have the girl baptized. She looked at it as basically an assault on her little girl.”
Thus the title of this post.
So what do you think? Was the father out of line in having his daughter baptized without discussion? Was he wrong in "rubbing her face in it" when he sent these pictures to his estranged wife? Would it have been just as wrong to have his daughter baptized without informing the wife?
Oh: on one point, I think the attorney is W-A-Y off base. He said, "In terms of Judaism, based on the information I was given, Catholicism falls right under the umbrella of Judaism."
Huh?
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Not knowing the whole story (you never know what the media is leaving out or hyping up,) I don't see anything wrong with him having her baptised... BUT, I do think he should have talked with his daughters Mother first and it really does seem like it was vindictive since he sent her the pictures. Also after the judge barred him from taking his daughter to church, he called local news media and had them come and film him taking her to church again!
ReplyDeleteDo I think it's wrong for a judge to say you cannot take your child to church? yes! But he seems to be going about this in all the wrong ways.
*just my opinion..
All I can say is that I feel so bad for this little girl. So sad when people play games with their children using them as pawns in a divorce battle. Here's hoping that this little girls can grow up with a healthy image of God and His followers.
ReplyDeleteHe should have baptized her himself in private and kept his mouth shut about it. And he should start praying for the conversion of the mother and the spiritual safekeeping of that child's soul. At this point he will have to follow the example of St. Monica and resort to prayer and GOOD EXAMPLE to his daughter and wife. And yes- it is going to take years of prayer and good example to undo this mess. It's time to smooth these waters and start praying. If he wants to contest the ruling he needs to do that through his lawyer and obey the law. His daughter does not need to be subjected to a lot of drama in connection with worshiping God. The end result will be that she will never worship God in any religion. And I wouldn't blame her!
ReplyDeleteI think he should be allowed to take her to church, but he shouldn't have baptized her without discussing it with her mother. That's a huge step! And he shouldn't have sent pictures and been vindictive about it.
ReplyDeleteYes, let's pray for the little girl and the whole family.