Okay to Attend My Grandson’s Dedication?

We’re not aware of anything in the Church’s liturgical discipline that explicitly addresses the scenario you’re presenting, but we can make recommendations based on Church teaching and discipline.

Based on the information you have provided us, we infer that your son and his wife were raised as Catholics, but that they have left the Church and are now members of a Protestant congregation. It’s not clear whether they were married in the Church, but that could be addressed another time.

The Church’s Directory on Ecumenism does allow for Protestants to serve as a witness—not godparents/sponsors—at a Catholic’s baptism, and the Church allows Catholics to do the same re: the baptism of Protestants (98a).

However, what you describe is a different scenario. Your son and his wife obviously belong to a congregation that does not espouse infant baptism but instead has the parents dedicate themselves to raising their child in their Christian faith, including:

1. To accept the responsibility as the primary spiritual leader of their child’s life.
2. To teach their child God’s word and lead them to a faith in Christ.
3. To model the love and grace of our Heavenly Father to their children.
4. To raise their child actively involved in church.

Insofar as your son and daughter want to bring up their grandson as a disciple of Christ in general, including living a moral life, that’s a good thing. To the extent they raise him to oppose the life-giving teaching that Jesus has given the one Catholic Church he has founded, that’s not good.

Consequently, you could arguably be present at such a ceremony to show qualified support—and perhaps share your Catholic faith—but you should refrain from affirming anything that is contrary to Catholicism, e.g., if their pastor asks the congregation to affirm certain distinctive religious teachings that are at odds with Catholic teaching. (Such an inquiry of the congregation would be similar to but different from what priests and deacons do at Catholic baptisms in asking the Catholic faithful present to affirm their faith by affirming the Nicene Creed [CCC 195]).

Finally, to share with your son and his wife at an appropriate time, here are our tracts on Infant Baptism and Early Teachings on Infant Baptism.