Attending Protestant Services

[santaro75]

I am from Singapore a small tiny country in Asia.

Yes I know the place. they have a great airline:thumbsup:

 

[StMarkEofE]

Since becoming Catholic, I have no desire to attend a Protestant service, as the real meaning and act of worship, the Eucharist, is absent. Everything else seems almost like a show to me anymore.

And it is unfortunately true, you don’t know when something that is contrary to Catholic teaching is going to take place or be taught. I know that even when I listen to Protestant Christian radio, I find so much of the content of sermons more offensive than I ever thought I would. You just have to be careful and be very grounded in your faith, know what you believe and why and don’t be persuaded by emotional arguments against what you know is true.

I dont think it would hurt to attend a wedding in a Protestant church but not participate in its service. I have attended some and even a Jewish Bar Mitzvah a time or two. I dont see the harm as long as one doesnt directly participate.

 

[RCCDefender]

The reason Fr. Sherpa said this is because the OP was going to a Protestant church *instead of *attending mass. Big no no.
Here is the reason the OP gave:

I have a dilemna, my wife and I are forced to go to a Weselyan Church because the Catholic Church we go to cut down its number of services and we are unable to accomodate them.

(my emphasis)
This looks like a pretty lame excuse for not attending mass. Now maybe the OP should have clarified a bit and the answer would have been different. For instance, if the Catholic parish he attended was the only Catholic church for 40 miles and they went from having 2 Masses on the weekend to only one, and that Mass happened to be when both he and his wife were working. You can obviously tell that he had more than one Mass to choose from because he said he was unable to accomodate them. Fr Sherpa included in his reponse:

I’d say that you had better find a way to “accomodate” to the new regimen at the Catholic church. The accomodation you have chosen is not an option for a practicing Catholic.

I thought Fr. Sherpa’s response was right on the mark.

 

[Scott36]

Well, you may certainly not receive Communion in a Protestant service or participate actively in what may be considered the equivalent of our sacraments; this is what the Church calls communicatio in sacris—sharing in sacred rites—and to participate actively in them would imply adhesion to Protestantism and departure from the Catholic faith. This prohibition is considered by most traditional theologians to be of divine origin. In fact, the former discipline of the Church went further and prohibited any attendance at Protestant services, except for those services attendance at which is required by civil comity, such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, and the like, on the grounds that, though not strictly forbidden by divine law, such attendance could be dangerous to the integrity of the faith of the Catholic party, a prudential judgment on the part of the Church. Now, however, this latter prohibition is no longer in force, and Catholics may attend non-Catholic services, provided that they do not participate in any aspects of the service which are contrary to the Catholic faith—and, of course, is the service is filled with anti-Catholic elements, attendance would be problematic—and that in their considered judgment the spiritual good coming from such attendance will outweigh any possible harm. This is called communicatio in spiritualibus, sharing in spiritual things. Also, it would be unwise to attend non-Catholoic services so often as to give rise either to the reality or to the appearance of indifference.

Thanks Animadversor! That helps a lot. You’ve made the Catholic teaching and the good sense/wisdom of this teaching clear to me on this issue. It seems you are making reference to documented Church teaching. Can you direct me to where to find such teaching from the Church or established Catholic Authority.
Thanks.

 

[smach]

Alright, here’s a scenario along these lines. Say a Catholic and a Protestant are married. Let’s say for arguement’s sake that their marriage is recognized by the Church and that the Catholic does attend Mass every Sunday, but he or she also occasionally goes to the spouse’s service in addition to Sunday Mass. He or she does not receive the Protestant communion. So far, so good, right? Now let’s say that this particular Protestant fait practices annointing with oil, not just for physical healing but also for spiritual strength (I do think there are some that do this). The couple has been having some problems and the Protestant wants them to be annointed by his or her ministry for spiritual strength. Would the Catholic be allowed to do this?

 

[Contarini]

Also, it would be unwise to attend non-Catholoic services so often as to give rise either to the reality or to the appearance of indifference.

Whatever the heck that means. I’ll tell you what fosters “indifference.” “Indifference” is fostered by good things being separated from each other, so that it becomes impossible to see how ecclesiastical divisions can have moral or spiritual relevance. If you say that a Catholic can’t sing a perfectly orthodox Charles Wesley hymn with a bunch of Protestants, you will make the Catholic (if he’s a relatively open-minded person) question the spiritual value of the Church’s claims. How can a claim to be the “true Church” be correct if it cuts one off from means of grace?

Edwin

 

[prv]

For the record:

DIRECTORY FOR THE APPLICATION OF
PRINCIPLES AND NORMS ON ECUMENISM

Sharing in Non-Sacramental Liturgical Worship

1. In liturgical celebrations taking place in other Churches and ecclesial Communities, Catholics are encouraged to take part in the psalms, responses, hymns and common actions of the Church in which they are guests. If invited by their hosts, they may read a lesson or preach.

This applies to non-sacramental worship, and consequently I don’t think permission of this kind would be given to Protestant celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.

vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_25031993_principles-and-norms-on-ecumenism_en.html

 

[Scott36]

It does seem harsch at first until you think about the goal that Jesus had for his church which was unity.

I read your original post. If it is true you can not make it to a mass then i have a hard time seeing this as wrong.

Hi Santaro,

Just for clarification the original post was posted by someone else. I have no problem whatsoever attending a mass in the town I live in. There are several parishes that have various mass times. I believe that I could probably attend Sunday mass atleast 5 times if I visit various parishes in town at various times from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. Praise the Catholic church for often providing much flexibility in mass times! I wish it could be like this everywhere so nobody would have to go without the mass!

 

[Scott36]

This from the Catechism
scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p3.htm#817
I thought would be good to mention here.

818 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."272

I loved my first Christian experiences in the Protestant churches I attended and I love and respect the people in those churches. Now that I’m a Catholic I just wish my Protestant friends could rid themselves of their misconceptions about the Catholic Church and see the truth and beauty therein.

 

[Windmill]

So, if my best friend, a Baptist, gets married to another Baptist, could I be a reader for one of the bible readings?

 

[Sixtus]

“No Catholic is ever forced to attend a Protestant church service. In fact, Catholics are forbidden to worship in such Churches—let alone receiving their form of eucharist.”

When you have seen as much of life as I have, one becomes very cynical and mistrusting of what others allege. Is Fr Serpa really a Priest? Or is the correspondent really Fr Serpa?

Obviously there are doctrinal problems with the Eucharist. I have no problem with that, but, not to worship in a Proddy Tent? Not heard that one.

I regularly used to worship in the Methodist Chapel next door to where I used to live. In fact, every sunday after mass, I was such a regular attender, the local’s mistook me for a fellow Methodist.

When their minister tragically died, they elected and were served by the local Catholic Deacon [with the Bishops approval-only becuase he was taking up another ministry in addition to a heavy workload] for almost a year until they could appoint a new minister.

I will always owe it to the Methodists where I discovered my voice. Now, I sing my heart out at mass. We catholics do not sing enough. Methodists sing all the time. That way, you discover

Deo Gratious

 

[sandmountainsli]

I will always owe it to the Methodists where I discovered my voice. Now, I sing my heart out at mass. We catholics do not sing enough. Methodists sing all the time. That way, you discover

Deo Gratious

The Methodists sing entirely TOO MUCH.
They sang for 35 minutes this morning at my church
I am seriously considering becoming Anglican just to get away from all the music. It distracts me from worshipping properly.
WP

 

[Julianna]

Fr. Serpa said this in the AAA section responded to a question (partial quote given)

“No Catholic is ever forced to attend a Protestant church service. In fact, Catholics are forbidden to worship in such Churches—let alone receiving their form of eucharist.”

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=108232

Is it really true that Catholics are forbidden to attend a Protestant service? I became a Christian in a wonderfully loving Protestant church in town. I have since become a Catholic but I still have good friends back at the Protestant and I enjoy worshipping with them from time to time (never instead of Sunday mass but in addition to it).

It seems rather severe to declare that Catholics are forbidden to attend Protestant churches.

Well man oh man, am I going to hell in a handbasket, along with my sister and brother. How absurd. My mother is Baptist, my father (now deceased) was Catholic. They were married almost 50 yrs. We were raised Catholic. We attended my mother’s church off and on when we were little. My mother took instructions in the church BEFORE she married my dad, and asked all kinds of questions. She KNEW that my siblings and I could not take part in their communion and was fine with that. She also knew that when she attended mass with us, that she could not partake in the Eucharist. Simple, done. My mother made sure we made our sacraments and attended catechism. It was my Baptist grandmother (in the south) that taught me about the Bible and Bible verses. To me, I got the best of both worlds. I say I am a Catholic, as I was baptised a Catholic and went on the Catholic journey. My husband is a cradle Catholic and our children were raised in the church. After they received their sacraments…they as now adults decided where they wanted to worship.

There are many paths…but one journey to Jesus. IMHO…so don’t rake me over the coals on this.

When I hear FORBIDDEN…it makes my skin crawl.

“Where ever 2 or more are gathered, there I am in the midst.”

oh, yeah, Jesus did say that.

 

[LilyM]

Going to Protestant services in addition to Mass is one thing.

As has been indicated, the initial comment by Fr Serpa was in response to someone who attended Protestant services ONLY and INSTEAD of Mass, which is a very dangerous and probably sinful thing for any Catholic to do.

I think his comment was correct for that situation and there’s no need to doubt Fr Serpa’s credentials.

 

[RCCDefender]

Going to Protestant services in addition to Mass is one thing.

As has been indicated, the initial comment by Fr Serpa was in response to someone who attended Protestant services ONLY and INSTEAD of Mass, which is a very dangerous and probably sinful thing for any Catholic to do.

I think his comment was correct for that situation and there’s no need to doubt Fr Serpa’s credentials.

Thank you. That is what I’ve been trying to reitterate here. This was stated for a particualr person i a particular situation and in this thread Fr. Sherpa’s words were taken out of context.

 

[Scott36]

Originally Posted by LilyM
Going to Protestant services in addition to Mass is one thing.

As has been indicated, the initial comment by Fr Serpa was in response to someone who attended Protestant services ONLY and INSTEAD of Mass, which is a very dangerous and probably sinful thing for any Catholic to do.

I think his comment was correct for that situation and there’s no need to doubt Fr Serpa’s credentials.

Thank you. That is what I’ve been trying to reitterate here. This was stated for a particualr person i a particular situation and in this thread Fr. Sherpa’s words were taken out of context.

I understand what you’re getting at and I mean no disrespect to Fr. Serpa surely.

But, an unqualified statement in the form of a complete sentence is still just that a statement. A very specific and clear unqualified statement like that:

"In fact, Catholics are forbidden to worship in such Churches—let alone receiving their form of eucharist. "

from: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=108232

even when mercilessly ripped out of context should still be understandable as a statement. That’s how I understood it when I read it and that’s why I asked about it since it doesn’t agree with what I’ve learned in the past.

Again, I mean no disrespect to Fr. Serpa, I have great respect for him, it’s just that one has to be careful not to be misuderstood especially when it comes to understanding our faith.

Perhaps even the statement itself has the grain of truth. Perhaps we are allowed to attend a protestant church service as long as we don’t actrually worship while we’re there. It seems unlikely though, that this was the intended meaning.

 

[RCCDefender]

Scott,
Oh, I understood why you asked about it, and since you provided the link to the original statement I didn’t feel like you were trying to take his words out of context at all. It was my guess that a lot of the people who responded didn’t follow your link to read the entire situation before they composed their response. I’m sorry I didn’t explain what I meant more clearly!

 

[Scott36]

Scott,
Oh, I understood why you asked about it, and since you provided the link to the original statement I didn’t feel like you were trying to take his words out of context at all. It was my guess that a lot of the people who responded didn’t follow your link to read the entire situation before they composed their response. I’m sorry I didn’t explain what I meant more clearly!

Hey RCCDefender. Thanks for the comments!
Responses to the thread have helped me understand what the Church teaches and how to best interpret Fr. Serpa’s words. Thanks everybody for your responses.

A couple responses in particular were really helpful and I think well balanced which I’ll try to quote and give thanks for in the next posts.

 

[Scott36]

For the record:

DIRECTORY FOR THE APPLICATION OF
PRINCIPLES AND NORMS ON ECUMENISM

Sharing in Non-Sacramental Liturgical Worship

1. In liturgical celebrations taking place in other Churches and ecclesial Communities, Catholics are encouraged to take part in the psalms, responses, hymns and common actions of the Church in which they are guests. If invited by their hosts, they may read a lesson or preach.

This applies to non-sacramental worship, and consequently I don’t think permission of this kind would be given to Protestant celebrations of the Lord’s Supper.

vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/documents/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_25031993_principles-and-norms-on-ecumenism_en.html

Hey prv, thanks for your response. Thanks for giving reference to church documents on the subject. I like to see that and it has helped a lot!

 

[Scott36]

Well, you may certainly not receive Communion in a Protestant service or participate actively in what may be considered the equivalent of our sacraments; this is what the Church calls communicatio in sacris—sharing in sacred rites—and to participate actively in them would imply adhesion to Protestantism and departure from the Catholic faith. This prohibition is considered by most traditional theologians to be of divine origin. In fact, the former discipline of the Church went further and prohibited any attendance at Protestant services, except for those services attendance at which is required by civil comity, such as weddings, funerals, baptisms, and the like, on the grounds that, though not strictly forbidden by divine law, such attendance could be dangerous to the integrity of the faith of the Catholic party, a prudential judgment on the part of the Church. Now, however, this latter prohibition is no longer in force, and Catholics may attend non-Catholic services, provided that they do not participate in any aspects of the service which are contrary to the Catholic faith—and, of course, is the service is filled with anti-Catholic elements, attendance would be problematic—and that in their considered judgment the spiritual good coming from such attendance will outweigh any possible harm. This is called communicatio in spiritualibus, sharing in spiritual things. Also, it would be unwise to attend non-Catholoic services so often as to give rise either to the reality or to the appearance of indifference.

Thanks again Animadversor for your response. I think you have spoken the truth. Cheers!