Problem:
Is it wrong to continue to see a certain boy secretly when your parents have forbidden you to go out with him?
I am 21 years old and my father is quite wealthy. The boy I have been going with comes from an ordinary family and he is working his way through business college, hoping to obtain a good job when he finishes.
My mother and father argue that he will probably never be able to provide for me as they have done all my life so far. That is why they have forbidden me to see him.
But I think I am in love with him, and I don’t care if we do have to live on a small income after he graduates.
Of course I wouldn’t marry him until then, but if I don’t see him in the meantime once in a while I shall probably lose him.
I’ve been having lunch with him now and then when I’ve gone shopping, and I want to continue to do so.
Solution:
Even though you are 21, with some right to decide your own vocation, there is a presumption in favor of the wisdom of your parents’ requests and commands.
That presumption will yield only to clear indications that they are unreasonably interfering with the happiness of your future and the will of God for you.
On the side of the wisdom of your parents is the fact that ordinarily it is not easy for a girl who has had all the conveniences and luxuries that wealth can provide to adjust her mode of living to a much lower standard.
Nor, ordinarily, can a girl be very happy if, in order to marry, she has had to incur the displeasure and lasting opposition of her family, especially if she has had a pleasant and easy life with her family.
Only if a girl has a strong, spiritual character, a proven capacity for mortification and sacrifice, and a great earnestness about her task in life, should she consider a marriage that will mean giving up much that she is accustomed to.
Since it is pretty hard for you to judge whether you have all these qualities, I suggest that you obey your parents to this extent: tell the boy of your parents’ wishes and commands; tell him that in obedience to them you will not see him for three months; during the three months test yourself, by rather rigorous mortification, to learn how many of the luxuries of your home you can do without; and at the same time try to convince your parents, in all kindness, that they should permit you to see the boy at least once in a while, on condition that you will make no decision to marry him without talking it over thoroughly with them.
(Fr. Miller- Questions Young People ask before Marriage)
