Glenn Manochi, a Center City lawyer, attends Mass weekly at Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Haddonfield. His wife and daughters go to the nearby First Presbyterian Church.

As a Catholic married to a Protestant, Manochi is part of a trend in the church: By some estimates, the interfaith marriage rate is double what it was 40 years ago.

"It never really crossed my mind as being a conflicted situation," he said. "I can't say that we sat down and had at-length discussions about our religious beliefs before we got married, but it never seemed to bother me. I judged her as a person."

Manochi grew up in Danbury, Conn. His wife, Peg, grew up in Bethlehem, Pa., attending Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.

The couple were wed in her Presbyterian church, with both a Presbyterian minister and a Catholic priest officiating.

From the beginning of their marriage, they attended different churches - "kind of like separate but equal," he said.

"I respected him for his beliefs and how he wanted to celebrate his religious thing, and [he] respected mine," she said. " . . . I would question him on the Catholic beliefs sometimes. We'd have good discussions about it, but it was never disrespectful."

When their daughters, now 13 and 17, were born, they were baptized in the Catholic Church, "which was an important thing to me," Glenn said.

Peg agreed to it. "As long as they were baptized, it was OK with me," she said. "The Presbyterians recognize the Catholic baptism, but Catholics don't recognize the other way."

The girls' religious education, however, has been Protestant. They are active in the choir at the Presbyterian church, and Glenn often goes to services there when they are singing.

Does it bother him that his children are growing up in a different religious tradition?

"I thought it would," he said. "But then when you start looking at the religious beliefs of Presbyterians and Catholics, [they are] remarkably similar."

Although he has been welcomed in the Presbyterian church and even invited to join the choir, Glenn says he has no interest in converting.

"For me, Catholicism is such an ingrained thing, it's almost like breathing."