Do Jews ever go to Mass and do Catholics ever visit their churches?

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angel6288

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The dozens of times I’ve went to mass I’ve never seen one because, I know that the Jews don’t believe that Christ is the Messiah. I’ve grew up hearing how similar Jews and Catholics are and how Jews go to observe the mass. Is there any validity to this statement?
 
No, Jewish people go to synagogue, Catholic people go to church. As you already said Jewish people don’t believe in Jesus while Catholics (and Christians) do.
Of course there are some Catholic converts of Jewish ancestry. Orthodox Jews would not enter a Catholic church even to visit it because it is considered a sin; plenty of secular Jews visit churches for tourism or if invited to a special event.
In the same way some Catholics may go to synagogue once in a while if invited to family/friends special events (like weddings, bar/bat mitzvah etc) or to visit a synagogue that is also a historical place.
 
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angel6288 said:
The dozens of times I’ve went to mass I’ve never seen one because, I know that the Jews don’t believe that Christ is the Messiah. I’ve grew up hearing how similar Jews and Catholics are and how Jews go to observe the mass. Is there any validity to this statement?
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How do you know you’ve never seen one?
 
Jewish by religion or Jewish by ethnicity? One does not stop being a Jew because they believe Christ is the redeemer. Hebrew Catholics
Who is a Jew?
By the way, my Saudi Muslim friend (who is Yemenite Jewish descent, from his mother), has gone to Mass with me. Muslims believe Jesus is the Messiah, but they mean something very different. If a Muslim can go, why couldn’t a religious Jew?
 
There were 13 Jews at the first mass. One left early. One died the next day. < But didn’t stay that way.

My niece’s husband never stopped “being Jewish” culturally. But he goes to mass each week with his Catholic wife and two baptized Catholic sons. He considers the Church true (and the extension of Judaism it is … per Jesus being the Messiah).

At home they keep certain cultural Jewish traditions going (prayers at meals … remembering things like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur) but don’t go to Temple or synagogue. Methinks he may be baptized formally after his folks die.

Their wedding ceremony was on Catholic grounds and with a priest. They completed Catholic pre-Cana classes. Wedding ceremony was not a mass, but co-presided with a Rabbi’s blessing, a canopy, and that glass in a napkin getting stomped on thing.

Lots of non Catholics drop in to masses as well as Jews too. They all hear the liturgies … which on many Sundays include both an Old Testament reading and a Psalm before the New Testament epistle and the Gospel.

The four Gospels, though found in the New Testament, are pretty Jewish too, as they are mostly taking place in the time JUST before the Church was founded.
 
How would you know whether a person is Jewish or not?
I’m Catholic and I have been in synagogues many times. I have Jewish friends who went to Catholic school with me and assisted at Mass.
Jewish people may have different religions, or may be atheist or agnostic.
Messianic Jews believe that Christ is the Messiah.
The first Catholics were Jews and the Word made flesh was born of a Jewish maiden.
May God bless us all.
jt
 
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angel6288 said:
The dozens of times I’ve went to mass I’ve never seen one…
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Well, they look like everyone else so you might not have noticed.

I’ve attended services at a Synagogue many times, and I know Jews who’ve visited my parish to see the Christmas and Easter services. You’ve never been invited to attend a Bar Mitzvah?
 
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I know for a fact that on occasion there have been Jews who have gone to mass and some have gone to the bible study.
 
With Catholics, Jews, and (for that matter) Muslims, I think it depends on how orthodox the person is. During my conversion to Catholicism, I saw a video of a Muslim woman going to Mass with her Catholic friend, which I thought was sweet, but I imagine the woman belonged to a less strict sect of Islam. Likewise, I wouldn’t doubt that secular or reform Jews have participated in Mass before.

I do not consider myself to be a traditional Catholic, however I would never participate in a Protestant, Jewish, or Muslim service myself. However, I know of some Catholics who have, along with other questionable visits (pride parades, same-sex weddings, etc.).
 
I went to a friends Synagogue in college. I was honestly moved at the reverence with which they treated the Torah.
 
Individual Catholics and Jews do attend each other’s services if they wish. No one checks your religious ID at the door of the Church or Synagogue.

If you wish to visit the local synagogue, call the office and ask what their C-19 policy is for visits.
 
I don’t doubt that some Jews go to Mass from time to time, whether for weddings, funerals, or even just a desire to see how Catholics worship. But I have to think it would be fairly repugnant to them — try to imagine, if they did this (and they don’t), that LDS believed that Joseph Smith was the Messiah, Lord and Savior of mankind, God incarnate, and that at every “sacrament service”, they believed that bread and water (they don’t use wine) became the body and blood of Joseph Smith, not only to be consumed, but to be worshiped and venerated. That’s probably how a believing Jew would view the Mass. Without agreeing, I can entirely understand why they’d see it that way.
 
Beryllos said:
This thread reminds me of an old movie in which two children, one Catholic and one Jewish, go to each other’s church/synagogue service.

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Hand in Hand (film)​

Hand in Hand is a 1960 black and white Associated British Picture Corporation dramatic film about the friendship between two young children, one a Roman Catholic boy about nine, the other a 7-year-old Jewish girl. Filmed in the summer of 1960 under the title “The Star and the Cross”, Hand in Hand was released theatrically in the United States in 1961 by Columbia Pictures. Although ABPC’s distribution arm in the United Kingdom, Warner-Pathe Film Distributors, screened the film for the British …
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Very good children’s movie. I remembered it from my childhood — indeed, that was probably the first time I’d ever learned anything of substance about either Catholicism or Judaism — and we watched this in homeschool last year.

Incidentally, the Mass in the movie was the Traditional Latin Mass — 1960, what else could it have been?

Calm and understated, in the way the British do better than anybody else.
 
Only because all the churches I’ve been to in my diocese I know them or have seen that a mass usually every tine I’m their.
 
Only because I mostly know or have spoken to everyone I’ve seen at mass.
 
angel6288 said:
Only because I mostly know or have spoken to everyone I’ve seen at mass.
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Ah, Are you a recent convert? You identify as Pentecostal in your profile.
Welcome to the family!
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Not officially Catholic yet but, I feel as though I am. I always feel guilty about identifying myself as Catholic when I’m not acting it and especially with the way my mother feels about the faith.
 
Prayers offered for both of you. (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
I wonder if you’ve had the chance to read about Saint Edith Stein?
She was a Jewish philosopher who studied her way into the Catholic Church and became a sister. She was martyred during WWII.

If the Catholic parish to which you are drawn subscribes to Formed.org, you can watch this movie about her free of charge. Otherwise, you could order it online or through your Catholic/Christian bookstore if it appeals to you.
Edith Stein: The Seventh Chamber - FORMED

I thought of this, both because of your question about Jews and Catholics and because of your mention of the challenges of becoming Catholic when your mother is opposed to this.
Saint Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) was a Jewish convert who experienced the problem you describe. The article linked below tells her story and speaks to this issue.
I think you and she might become good friends- as we can pray to our friends, the saints in heaven and they may also intercede for their friends on earth.
May God bless you and your mother.
Saint Edith Stein, pray for us! Amen.
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/the-life-and-legacy-of-edith-stein/
 
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