Chris Cross

My Father was an altar boy while growing up. I remember his Mom buying a pew when our local parish had a fund drive as a needed remodel went on at the parish where I made my first communion and subsequently my confirmation.

When I married my daughter's Mom the first time we were married by the mayor of the town where we both went to HS. Although her Mom was an ex-nun who had left the community just after Vatican 2 in the late 1960's she only accepted that choice because she saw it as an improvement over living together.

When my daughter was born her Mom and I spent Sunday mornings for the better part of 3 months trying out different services because she did not like the way the catholic church treated women. This was just before the world learned how some of its priests had been treating little boys. oh boy. We decided to stay with the church we had been raised in and our daughter was christened and made her first communion.

My ex-nun mother-in-law had advised both of us when we had married outside the church that we could not receive communion because the civil marriage did not change the fact that we were living in perpetual sin not having accepted the sacrament of marriage.

Somehow just before our daughter was to make communion my wife was convinced by her Mom we should get married in the catholic church and so we did that in a short service at the catholic church in the Bronx where our daughter went to elementary school. About a year later she wanted a divorce.

So is it odd given all of the foregoing that today I carve ornamental crosses of every imaginable material for fun? I also maintain a website- www.ornamentalcross.com where I blog about my crosses and offer them and others that I resell for sale. Yep that's me too. When I am not advocating for Parent-Child relationship protection I am carving and selling crosses. Check it out some time.