Hi, Marvin —

Thanks for the question.

If you are being drawn to the Catholic faith, you have to follow that call.

You have to respect your wife's choice to go to whatever church she wants to but, at the same time, she has to respect your choice to go to where the Holy Spirit is calling you.

Ultimately, the sacramental graces you receive through the Church will help, not only you,
but her, if your marriage is valid in the eyes of the Church. If you truly wish to become a Catholic and join the Church, it makes no sense to attend a non-denominational church with her since what her church believes is very different than what the Church you want to join believes.

You could not receive Holy Communion in the Catholic Church either. When the faithful in the Church receive Holy Communion, whether they know it or not, they are publicly stating that they are in a Common Union with the Teachings of the Church.

If you are going to your wife's non-denominational church at the same time, you would be saying you are in a Common Union with the Catholic Church when you really are not.

One of the toughest things to accept in family environments, are other family member's free will to do things, other than what's in their best interest, from your viewpoint. For each situation, you have to weigh:

• saying what has to be said, charitably, versus
• keeping a prayerful quiet for the sake of family cohesion and unity.

I would make an appointment with a priest to talk about these issues.

Seeing you may be preparing to take RCIA classes in the near future, I would encourage you to consider buying a cheap copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to learn everything we believe as faithful Catholics.

Under each boxed format for the Catechism you want, you will see, below the box, an option to buy a used version, which many times, is not really used but close to new.