My wife’s ex was Catholic. When they were going together he went to Mass. From the moment they were married he never went with her to Mass again. Their child was baptised Catholic and he told the priest he would raise the child in the faith. He never went to any of her cathecism classes. Not the first one. He never went with her and her mother to Mass. His reply when asked why, was “the Catholic Church is not telling me what to do”. After 10 years of living with this character she filed for a divorce. I met her 10 years later and she applied for a annulment. It took 2 years to get, many statements of witnesses that attested to the fact that he led her on and had no intention of living like a Catholic. The final straw was when he ignored the statement asked by the tribunal for his side of the story.
St. Monica
The circumstances of St. Monica’s life could have made her a nagging wife, a bitter daughter-in-law and a despairing parent, yet she did not give way to any of these temptations. Although she was a Christian, her parents gave her in marriage to a pagan, Patricius, who lived in her hometown of Tagaste in North Africa. Patricius had some redeeming features, but he had a violent temper and was licentious. Monica also had to bear with a cantankerous mother-in-law who lived in her home. Patricius criticized his wife because of her charity and piety, but always respected her. Monica’s prayers and example finally won her husband and mother-in-law to Christianity. Her husband died in 371, one year after his baptism.