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Lee
Member
| Joined: | Fri May 18th, 2007 |
| Location: | Birmingham, Alabama USA |
| Posts: | 70 |
| First Name: | Lee | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Charismatic-nondenom.-Presbyterian-Catholic |
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Posted: Tue May 29th, 2007 11:05 pm |
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What documents in the church speak to whether it is permissible,, specifically, for Catholics to pray with or sing hymns with Protestants at a Christian gathering, or even attend Christian gatherings (like a worship service or a wedding) at all with Protestants? I have had several contradictory opinions, and each of them cite a different document. I've been told strongly that I shouldn't do it, which means I shouldn't work at the Protestant school where I work because we sing and pray a lot, which means that the people who tell me that I've been placed there by God to open their eyes to the Catholic Church are wrong. Here's the documents:
Code of Canon Law of 1917
Decree of the Holy Office, July 8th, 1927.
Holy Office on the Ecumenical Movement. Given at Rome, from the Holy Office, 20 Dec., 1949
a Papal Encyclical (Mortalium Animos)
Leo XIII and Pius XI
(I asked this question in the wrong topic category, so perhaps the answer could be pasted here. Also, the answer, which was very well documented, contained generalizations, and I would like a specific answer.
Thank you,
Lee
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Ali
Member
| Joined: | Sat Jan 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 656 |
| First Name: | Ali | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | JW, finally fully Catholic |
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Posted: Wed May 30th, 2007 08:59 am |
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I would be very interested in an answer to this question as well. Growing up we were strongly discouraged from attending even weddings or funerals inside other churches. If we did you absolutely did not participate in any way. I thought the CC was past that.
Ali
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CajunRick
Network Helper
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Houma, Louisiana USA |
| Posts: | 5348 |
| First Name: | Rick (& Kermie) | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Lifetime Catholic, Latin Rite |
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Posted: Wed May 30th, 2007 10:52 am |
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Lee wrote: What documents in the church speak to whether it is permissible,, specifically, for Catholics to pray with or sing hymns with Protestants at a Christian gathering, or even attend Christian gatherings (like a worship service or a wedding) at all with Protestants? I have had several contradictory opinions, and each of them cite a different document. I've been told strongly that I shouldn't do it, which means I shouldn't work at the Protestant school where I work because we sing and pray a lot, which means that the people who tell me that I've been placed there by God to open their eyes to the Catholic Church are wrong. Here's the documents:
Code of Canon Law of 1917
Decree of the Holy Office, July 8th, 1927.
Holy Office on the Ecumenical Movement. Given at Rome, from the Holy Office, 20 Dec., 1949
a Papal Encyclical (Mortalium Animos)
Leo XIII and Pius XI
(I asked this question in the wrong topic category, so perhaps the answer could be pasted here. Also, the answer, which was very well documented, contained generalizations, and I would like a specific answer.
The answer to your question as worded is yes. We are permitted to attend ecumenical gatherings, weddings, funerals, and even worship services in Protestant churches and participate fully in every way except actively expressing their faith. We may not, for example, respond to altar calls, accept baptism, participate in whatever version of communion they use, profess faith in their beliefs, etc. We cannot do anything that denies our Catholic faith or we cease to be Catholic in spirit if not in fact. We cannot compromise our Catholic beliefs.
Attending a wedding, funeral, baptism, etc., or participating in an ecumenical gathering are good things. We attend as Christian guests, just as they do when they attend such gatherings in the Catholic Church. Attending Protestant worship services for special occasions, such as a recent thread on Mother's Day, is giving honor to our parents and is acceptable.
Attending ordinary worship services is a different matter, and therefore more serious. For a Catholic to regularly attend Protestant worship because of something lacking in the Catholic mass would represent a serious misunderstanding of the mass and its purpose as heaven on earth. It runs the risk of the sin of scandal by demonstrating to others that their church is equal to the Catholic faith. Receiving communion in a Protestant community demonstrates a belief that their symbolic presentation is in some way "equal" to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, which is at minimum misleading.
But that doesn't mean it is always wrong. We have members of Protestant faiths in our forum who are still active in their old congregations while also attending mass, and those who are now Catholic who still attend their Protestant services because they feel it is important to show solidarity with their families. That is commendable. It is indeed better that a child have a faith in Jesus rather than no faith at all. We hope and pray that their faith will lead them to the Truth of the Catholic faith, but in the mean time, we must support that which is good within their Protestant faith while not compromising our Catholic beliefs.
The sources you cite are outdated. Any document written prior to Vatican II should be reviewed through the "lens" of this council. Dogma will be unchanged, but matters of discipline will often have been changed or at least revisited and reinterpreted. While any Church document must be taken in context with the entire Deposit of Faith, those written prior to Vatican II must especially be reexamined in the light of this major council.
These are matters of discipline, not doctrine, and are subject to change. The documents you mention came from a time when the Church tried to "protect" us from error by shielding us. As with so many things, the spirit of aggiornamento at Vatican II caused a re-examination of all things Catholic, including our relationship with our Protestant brothers and sisters.
To use an analogy, suppose we had a brother who is an alcoholic. We can love him, share with him, and help him, or we can lock the door and pretend he doesn't exist. Before Vatican II the Church locked the doors, and the documents you mention reflect that attitude. Today we love them, share with them, and help them, and the documents of Vatican II and the current Catechism and Code of Canon Law reflect this different attitude.
The specific reference I cited in the other thread was paragraph 821 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which you'll find here. Source documents can be found through the footnotes, and in this particular paragraph, all of the footnotes refer to Unitatis redintegratio, the Vatican II Decree on Ecumenism.
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Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand. - Augustine
Rick Luquette
Luquette Lane
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Lee
Member
| Joined: | Fri May 18th, 2007 |
| Location: | Birmingham, Alabama USA |
| Posts: | 70 |
| First Name: | Lee | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Charismatic-nondenom.-Presbyterian-Catholic |
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Posted: Wed May 30th, 2007 11:13 am |
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Once again, thank you so much, Rick. I appreciate you a lot!
Lee
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