Charity or False Ecumenism?

[fishcamp]

Yesterday at Mass, after the homily, our priest allowed a lay person to make an appeal for money for a Protestant mission group. This person made an appeal on behalf of her sister who is a Protestant missionary for an evangelical Protestant ministry group in a foreign country. Apparently one of the buildings that this group uses had burned down and she was appealing for money to help rebuild the building. This group also has missions in predominantly Catholic countries like Mexico and Bolivia. I have a problem with this solicitation, especially at Mass and especially for a group that seeks to undermine Catholic teaching.

Some feel that this is simply a charitable thing to do but I feel it is false ecumenism and a form of indifferentism and religious relativism. What do you think?

 

[francesco920]

Hmm, a Catholic asking fellow Catholics to fund Protestants so they can convert Catholics…

Nope, I see nothing wrong there.

 

[THurifer2]

In my opinion…a protestant mission no matter how good they are should ever be solicited for at a Catholic mass.

A considerable amount of evangelical protestant charities have a main focus on conversion…Most of the time in countries like Mexico their conversion is focused on drawing people away from the Catholic faith. Missions that “evangelize” Catholics are in reality fighting AGAINST Christ’s church.

Since I have no idea what kind of charity this group is I would not assume they are against the church and they may be legit…but better safe than sorry. i think it was a poor choice. Plugging a non catholic charity…takes focus away from the Catholic ones.

 

[tcraig]

Wow, I think this was a very unwise decision by your priest!

Before we converted to the Catholic Church, my husband and I were “wandering” through various protestant denominations, eventually ending up at a Southern Baptist church.

They were really big into missions, and were heading up a medical mission trip to Brazil. I’m an RN, so this was quite appealing to us. Because of scheduling conflicts we ended up not being able to go, but donated a significant amount of money.

When the mission team returned to the states, we went one night to hear them tell about their experiences. To our surprise, we heard nothing about the medical care (which ended up being minimal - basically giving free eye exams and passing out old, donated glasses) but listened to testimony after testimony about how the Word of God was brought to these people. We also heard how many were “saved”. It was, essentially, a mission trip to convert Catholics. The bulk of the money donated for what we thought was medical care went into building a new church/meeting place.

My husband and I were confused and a little angry. We felt duped about the purpose of the trip, and wondered why these Catholics needed converting - after all, weren’t they Christians, too? (We were unaware at that time of the hard-core anti-Catholic evangelicals.) So we started doing some research into the Catholic Church, and then ended up converting ourselves!

Bottom line: as much good as many of these protestant groups may do (and I am not convinced that they are as helpful as they originally seem) their ultimate purpose is conversion. If they are in a predominantly Catholic country, you may be sure that they don’t consider Catholics to be “real Christians” and the Catholics are their target.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

I don’t why the priest allowed this, but I do know that Catholic and Protestant missionaries serving in foreign lands, help each other out. This is common and is very Christ like, in my opinion.

So, perhaps the priest in this parish was responding with the same sort of charity, in allowing this person to ask for help for this mission.

Jim

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Yesterday at Mass, after the homily, our priest allowed a lay person to make an appeal for money for a Protestant mission group. This person made an appeal on behalf of her sister who is a Protestant missionary for an evangelical Protestant ministry group in a foreign country. Apparently one of the buildings that this group uses had burned down and she was appealing for money to help rebuild the building. This group also has missions in predominantly Catholic countries like Mexico and Bolivia. I have a problem with this solicitation, especially at Mass and especially for a group that seeks to undermine Catholic teaching.

Some feel that this is simply a charitable thing to do but I feel it is false ecumenism and a form of indifferentism and religious relativism. What do you think?

I think it depends on the group. Aid to the Church in Need has in recent years supported the Orthodox in Russia, though the Russian Orthodox are not always “pro-Catholic”, to say the least; at least officially. My impression is, that the need of others is judged to be more important than how others treat us - & (though I have some misgivings) that STM to be how Christians ought to behave.​

Having said that, I know what you mean - but, on balance, the previous poster speaks for me too

How one answers this, will depend one’s priorities.

Hope that helps ##