Monday, December 14, 2009

Judge Bars Father From Taking His Jewish Baby To Catholic Church

CBS
Joseph Reyes is barred from taking his baby daughter to any church that is not Jewish, under a court order approved Friday.

Wife Says Taking Daughter To Christian Service Will Confuse Child

CHICAGO (CBS) ― A father has been hit with an unusual restraining order: Keep his daughter away from any religion that is not Jewish. After the girl's parents split up, the father went to a Catholic church and had the girl baptized, CBS station WBBM-TV reports.

Joseph Reyes, 35, had his daughter baptized and sent his ex-wife a picture of the ceremony.

Rebecca Reyes says she only learned of her daughter's Baptism when Joseph sent her the picture, and that he sent it out of malice. Joseph Reyes denies this.

"I sent it because Rebecca asked me for pictures," he said.

Rebecca Reyes says dhe wants her daughter raised Jewish, and that her husband pledged to do so, even going so far as to convert to Judaism himself.

"That's not accurate," he responded. "I'm not going to call her a liar, but … at the very least she's mistaken regarding that conversation."

But Rebecca Reyes says it's her estranged husband who made the mistake when he had their daughter baptized. In her petition, she argues that if he's allowed to raise the child in any faith other than Judaism, he will cause their daughter irreparable harm.

"I wouldn't harm my daughter simply to somehow spite my soon (soon)to-be ex-wife," Joseph Reyes said. "That's silly and ridiculous."

Reyes' divorce attorney, Joel Brodsky, said when he first saw the petition for a temporary restraining order against his client, he couldn't believe what he was reading.

"I almost fell off my chair," he said. "I thought maybe we were in Afghanistan and this was the Taliban. This is America. We have a First Amendment right of freedom of religion."

The restraining order asks the judge to bar Joseph from taking his daughter to church. According to the petition, failure to restrain him will "continue to the emotional detriment of the child."

Rebecca and her attorneys declined to go on camera but they did release the following statement: "We stand by our petition. We feel the judge will do whatever is best for the child."

The attorney for Joseph Reyes says he will appeal Friday's order.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The guy promised to raise his child Jewish--and he should follow-through with his promise. He probably did have the baby Baptised in order to distress his x-wife. That was a very bad move, as he promised to raise the child Jewish--but then with the Baptism--that means he also promised to raise her Catholic. What a sad state of affairs. These are serious matters--of God--not to be taken lightly, or used as weapons against x-spouses!