One of my friends, who is a hindu is in love with a catholic girl- from Goa, India. Both of them do not mind continuing their respective faiths even after marriage. But they want to know whether a catholic can marry a non-catholic and still continue her faith? It is altogeher a different issue how to convince their elders but is it a catholic law or something that forbids such a thing, especially with regards to Catholics from Goa? Thanks!

-- Michael (schumy_mike@rediffmail.com), July 10, 2004

Answers

Response to Can a catholic marry a non-catholic/hindu without converting?

Bump, and yes, they can. More great answers to elaorate later.

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), July 11, 2004.

They can,but it's wrong.

-- The Opinion (smiley@pup.com), July 21, 2004.

As long as your boyfriend understands yours and you understand his religon. And that harmony of religon can co-exist there shouldn't be a problem. But then people would soon forget Catholicism and neglect the religon, if many catholics start to marry many non-catholics.

-- James Khoo (aura_astral_traveller@yahoo.com), August 13, 2004.

The god of Buddhists is not a person as is the true God. It is a kind of immanentist force essentially present in all creatures. Some Buddhist sects worship innumerable deities. The Hindus, following a different doctrine, also worship a whole world of deities, including spirits such as Ishwar, and men and animals like cows and snakes.

-- - (David@excite.com), August 14, 2004.

first off, how does the Hindu/Buddhist worship process matter in this discussion? And secondly, you're quite ill-informed about the Hindu belief system, and I would appreciate it if you were to not keep writing the same old half-truths or complete falsehoods. Hindus believe in one supreme God, but understand that he manifests himself in many different forms...

-- music lover (loveofmusic24@yahoo.com), October 08, 2004.

now to answer the original question:

Interfaith marriages are difficult to make successful. In this case, how are the children going to be raised? Catholic? or Hindu? If the father his Hindu, I would think the children would most likely be raised Catholic, whether the father likes it or not, since the kids would spend most of their formative years in care of their mother, more than their father.

-- music lover (loveofmusic24@yahoo.com), October 08, 2004.

Hindus are interestingly quite similar to Catholics in their attitude to marriage, far more so than many "Christian" groups are. Marriage is a lifelong commitment to Hindus, and divorce is not recognized. I know several marriages between Hindus and Catholics and in every case that I know of, they are very successful.

There is no secular or church law in India (or Goa specifically) that prevents such marriages, but tradition does not encourage such matches, and family opposition is very likely on both sides, at least before the wedding.

-- __ (__@__.__), October 08, 2004.