Telesphorus, you would be proud of me.  I have a friend who has a daughter who is 16, nearly 17, and who has a choice between going to Harvard ( she has an 80% chance of getting in ) and getting married.  Her beau is from El Salvador and was a trad Catholic there, then came to America and was confused and ended up becoming Baptist.  But the mom is sure she will convince him to come to CMRI.  My advice was that if he does, then I recommend they get married and that the girl doesn't go to college.  He is applying to Cornell and he should be the bread-winner, if there is any bread to be won.

The mother told me I was an answer to her prayers and that I opened her eyes, that maybe her daughter in her academic pursuits is "chasing shadows."  For some reason, the mom also gets a large pension that will allow her to move into a nice house if her daughter gets married... Don't ask me why.  This came out after I gave her my opinion, but it appeared to give more weight to my opinion.

So far, of two other people at CMRI I've talked to, both of them disagree with me.  I'm starting to see what you're talking about.   I do feel there is a slight worldliness in thinking that girls should EVER go to these communist universities unless absolutely necessary for survival.  In this case, it isn't.

I never said that I thought girls should go to these colleges.  I was saying that waiting is not always a bad thing, depending on the spouses' spiritual development.  But even then, if a woman is spiritually undeveloped, marriage may be the best way to keep her in line.  Now that I think about it, it's hard for me to imagine a case when it would be inadvisable for a girl to marry young.  She may choose someone who is not fitting for her, due to her youth, but that's a different story.  If she meets someone who IS fitting at 18, there is no reason to wait whatsoever in almost any case, in my opinion.

Good job Raoul.  You seem to have  a gift for persuasion.

I think I need to focus on persuading the persuaders, because I do not have a gift for persuasion.

From what I understand, his intellect is not as firm as it could be, in terms of religious understanding -- as with most people out there -- and when he came to America with his mother, they didn't know where to go.  But the woman I was talking to is almost sure that he will respond well to traditional Catholicism.    

That just happened, she wrote me today saying that he is a Friends of Israel Baptist.  When she told him he'd have to convert, he began crying!

Of course she is against the idea of marriage now.  

Another thing: if she were thinking of marrying a Protestant then it already shows a streak of rebellion at work.  Hopefully he will convert. (it does seem though, that disparity of cult is minimized by many trads - in comparison to other things not nearly as important!)