(RNS) A Chicago man could face prosecution for violating a restraining order by taking his 3-year-old daughter to church.
Joseph Reyes, 35, converted from Catholicism to Judaism when he married his wife, Rebecca. According to Rebecca Reyes, they agreed to raise their daughter Jewish. But when the couple filed for divorce, Joseph baptized his daughter as a Catholic without his estranged wife’s consent.
Following the baptism, Rebecca Reyes filed a petition for a restraining order to keep Joseph Reyes from exposing their daughter Ela, 3, to any religion other than Judaism.
A judge granted the order last December, barring Joseph Reyes from taking his daughter to church until a trial judge could determine his rights. An appellate court upheld the decision.
On Jan. 17, Joseph Reyes entered Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago with his daughter and a television news crew in tow. In response, Rebecca Reyes filed for criminal contempt of the court order.
Joseph Reyes’s attorney, Joel Brodsky, said the restraining order violated the First Amendment by choosing one religion over another.”It is (Joseph’s) belief that if the child’s not baptized, God forbid the child should die, the child’s soul will not go to Heaven,” Brodsky said. “He did it for the welfare of the child’s soul.”
Joseph Reyes’s hearing is February 16; divorce proceedings continue in March.
