April 5

NFP and a Non-Catholic Spouse

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4  comments

A listener writes:

I’ve been listening to your podcast for a couple of years now and really enjoy getting access to the material.  Thank you, Sirius!

I just listened to the podcast with the NFP doctor and had a couple of questions/suggestions for future shows.  I apologize if you have covered this in past shows, I only have access to the podcasts.

I heard a caller talk about how his wife was not willing to go to NFP classes.  While you were helpful in giving him resources (e.g. sending him to the NFP doctor website and the Marquette one), you didn’t address the other issue that he brought up.  That was the fact that his wife was unwilling to go to classes and trusted her doctor.

When I went to the Catholic Engaged Encounter Weekend, I was with 30 other couples.  Of those couples, only a handful had both future spouses being a part of the church.  I think that it would be wonderful if you could address more fully how to work through some of the issues of marriage when you are in a marriage that has a “disparity of cult.”

I would like to try NFP, but my husband is unwilling.  What do you do in that situation?  How do you work through that sort of a marital issue?

I would really appreciate some more content that discusses how to work through the sacrament of marriage with a non-Catholic spouse.  I think that this would be useful for many people.

This is a tough question.  Has anyone else been in this similar situation?  How should she approach this?

About the author 

Greg

Greg is married to Jennifer. They've got five kids.

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  • I am in the same situation but I am a guy who has reverted back to the faith after getting married and wants to live the chaste life and practice NFP. My wife is a nurse and comes from a very liberal home and does not want to practice the faith. I have often wondered since women hold the keys to having sex then shouldn’t it be easier for women to practice any form of family planning/conception control? In here may be the solution. I am not trying to make light of the situation but it has just been an unanswered question I have been holding for a few years now. Anyway to compound this I have two small kids a girl 4 and a boy 2. I think about how the heck am I going to convince my wife that x, x, x, x, and x are wrong and we love the people but not their sins.

    Greg and Jennifer I used to listen to ur show before I had to give up my Sirius due to loss of job; so reply via this post or by email. If you talk about in on air could you let me know what podcast to get? Thanks!!

  • Don’t try. Reason is not a friend of ritual. The church will tear your marriage apart.

  • Martin – Funny, the Church has made our marriage stronger than it could possibly ever have been if we did things our own selfish way. I find the Church’s teachings to be entirely reasonable. The problem is that most “reasonable” people refuse to actually try to understand the teachings in the first place.

  • I don’t know you can say the church will tear your marriage apart. When you look at the statistics, those who follow the church more closely and pray together as Spouses divorce way less than those who think they are “free” to do whatever they want. I am a catholic convert and have lived a life with contraception before my now wife and I don’t think I could go back after I’ve seen all of the blessings on our marriage.

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