Did I commit idolatry by worshipping invalidly-consecrated bread?

[DL82]

I was waiting to catch a train, had arrived very early, so went into a church which looked to all appearances to be Catholic (had a crucifix with corpus outside, had times for “Mass” on the door, specifically said on the church door that the chapel was open for adoration all day, had the elaborate gothic design common among 19th-century Catholic churches here in England).

Anyway, after I’d spent about half an hour praying in front of the tabernacle with the sanctuary lamp lit, I came out and discovered as I walked around to the other side of the church that it was a high Anglican church. Have I sinned by giving my adoration to what is, effectively, just bread?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Objectively speaking, the act of worshipping an invalidly-consecrated host is indeed idolatry. In your case though, you had every reason to believe that the church was a Catholic church and that the reposed eucharist truly was Jesus Christ, present body, blood, soul, and divinity. You intended to worship Jesus Christ and so are not culpable for sin when you merely made an innocent mistake.

Please don’t beat yourself up over this. If it will make you feel better, you might spend an equal amount of time before the tabernacle in a church you are certain is a Catholic church. Then please just let this go and don’t worry about it further. God bless.