Single father, interested in the faith..can I be accepted?

[Spencerian]

Originally Posted by YoungTradCath

I am certain that you can have your child baptized without his mother's consent. It is his soul at stake.

This is very bad advice.

Often, a state's parental rights where joint legal custodianship exists, neither parent can enroll a minor child unilaterally without mutual consent. See this recent news report on a woman that baptized her children without the father's agreement and is now facing charges.

Some background to help you here:

I am in this very situation at the moment, where my son's atheist mother has blocked me from completing what was left of my son's RCIA courses, preventing him from becoming Catholic this past Easter Vigil.

Such court orders in my case are questionable, however, for one special exception. I can't enroll my child in any religious group and neither can the mother...but the child can enroll himself. My son turns 16 this week. He is old enough to learn to drive and to drive a multi-ton vehicle with a licensed driver. He also attended the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, not "Children." I was basically the transportation. Under Canon Law, I couldn't enroll my son into the Church even if I wanted to, at his age. He must choose the faith on his own, no matter how many times I drove him to courses or encouraged him.

So, if my son were to get a ride up to our parish and arrange for his initiation Sacraments, he could do so.

Were that to happen, I'm sure his mother would drag me to court. However, the U.S. Constitution's Free Exercise of religion clause applies to my son's right to choose a religion himself. The law has no set age for him to wait. A separated/divorced couple's divorce decrees apply only to them, not the children if they wished to act independently and had legitimate, reasoned causes for doing so.

The Church's rules prohibit me from enrolling my son at his age myself, so I would not be liable. The State cannot prohibit him from enrollment in the Church, and the law also prohibits his mother (or myself) from interference.

Even should my son meet his end before his baptism, the teaching of "baptism by desire" gives me assurance that these legal battles would not affect my child's salvation.

So age plays a serious factor here. Please use any advice you find here with care and do see an attorney as well as your parish priest and/or diocesan representative on such matters.