Hello everyone,
I'm feeling a bit nervous posting this--I am not Catholic, however, my wonderful fiance is. He and his family have welcomed me with open arms; I have never met kinder or more caring people.
We have decided to have a Catholic wedding in a church where his mother used to pray every day. We will have a full mass.
The problem is my family; they are very, very bitter against any Christian religion. My father lost his parents in a car crash, and I think he's never forgiven God for that. He's also living with a woman (who has incidentally been married 3 times and is STILL married to her last husband..) who is uncouth, insane, cruel, and will have all kinds of terrible things to say about the ceremony. Meanwhile, my brother doesn't like some of the Church's teachings and is very, very vocal about it.
I guess the obvious answer is to sit down and talk about these things with them, but they're not particularly good listeners--my brother has almost gotten arrested a time or two because he mouths off to police officers (seriously) when he thinks they're being rude. My father will yell until he's red in the face if I try to voice my concerns.
I'm just picturing FI's wonderful family being subjected to them, being insulted by them, and being passive-aggressively attacked by them simply because we're having a Catholic wedding. I'm picturing them saying awful things to FI and I during the reception. I'm trying not to let it bother me, but it's a concern.
How do you handle these types of situations? Has anyone been in a similar boat? How do I negate this without having a full-blown fight with my family?
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." -John Wooden