Now some have asked me why not join the Eastern Orthodox Church?  In truth, I have no problem joining the Orthodox Church due to its beliefs.  In many ways my personal beliefs are in line with the Orthodox Church than with the Catholic Church.  However this would not make things any better with my wife; it would most likely make it worse.  The Orthodox tend to be more expressive in their religion than Catholics, and their services even longer.  I can barely get away for an hour due to my wife enmity towards churches in general.  Another reason is that the only Orthodox churches in my area are mostly Greek Orthodox, and they tend to be ethnically biased and not too welcoming of non-Greek members.  I would have to travel a good distance to one of the Orthodox Church of America parishes.  Besides, I have a great fondness for many of the Catholic saints, such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua and St. Vincent DePaul.  The Orthodox do not honor them, and I would miss them sorely.  No, for good or bad, I must stay with the Catholic Church.

Back in February, my wife surprised me by telling me she wanted to go through the annulment process, not because she wanted to become Catholic, but to simply “get it done” with already.  I was happy, but I really did not want her to go through with it due to all the painful memories it would bring back.  In the end I was begging her not to do it, but she insisted.  We set up an appointment, and we met with a representative for the tribunal who took down her story.  I will not go into details, but even though I had heard it all before, it brought tears to my eyes to hear it again.  That one person could treat another so cruelly is hard to believe, but I knew it was true.

Since then, my wife’s feeling towards religion have gone back and forth, and currently she is strongly against joining the Church, nor does she like me having anything to do with it.  This puts me in a painful position, as I love my wife and do not wish to cause her pain, but I love the Lord and must follow Him.  So for now, I walk a thin line between faith and love.