Is it okay for Catholics to attend Protestant services?

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Provided, of course, that they still go to Catholic Mass every Sunday.
 
No. Absolutely not. It leads to religious indifference. My parents let us go to friends churches who were Protestants of different denominations when we were kids in the 90s and I honestly blame that for why I fell away for ten years and why my brothers haven’t stepped into a church in years. Those Protestants will act nice but they love openly making you feel like you have to defend your beliefs which results to questioning your own faith.
 
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On special occasions like a wedding or funeral or concerts, I don’t see a problem.
 
Prodigal1984 said:
No. Absolutely not.
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There are absolutely no absolutes…if you meet your obligation, there is no reason you cannot attend. And, I stress the word “attend”, you should not engage in practices that even seem innocently similar to Catholic Sacraments (specifically what they might call “Holy Communion”.
 
Why would you want to attend? So you can be thrown false ideas made up by heretics?
I wonder in that case if in the early Church the people were like, sure, after mass go worship it up with the Arians, Montanists, and Manichees. Just don’t take part in their sacrament and you’re fine.
 
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Prodigal1984 said:
Why would you want to attend? So you can be thrown false ideas made up by heretics?
I wonder in that case if in the early Church the people were like, sure, after mass go worship it up with the Arians, Montanists, and Manichees. Just don’t take part in their sacrament and you’re fine.
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You’ve left me speechless…almost… Should we build pyres to burn those heretics at the stake?
 
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I don’t see an issue if the person going to Protestant services also goes to Mass every week. My family is protestant, and I am Catholic (well, in the process of becoming Catholic) and I still go to services with them.
 
Prodigal1984 said:
We just should stay out of their services
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Some will say we should, the question was not what you or I think, but what the Church thinks, and there is no absolute prohibition by the Church for Catholics to attend Protestant services.

Interestingly enough, as a life long LCMS member, I accepted an invitation years ago to attend Mass with a young person, and they attended a Lutheran worship service with me. We were respectful of each others faith traditions and in the end, 43 years ago, I married that person, and entered into full communion with the Catholic Church.

I guess the relationship should have ended under your scenario, but thank the Lord it did not.
 
Pope Pius IX, Graves ac diuturnae (# 4), March 23, 1875: “ They [the faithful] should totally shun their religious celebrations, their buildings, and their chairs of pestilence which they have with impunity established to transmit the sacred teachings. They should shun their writings and all contact with them. They should not have any dealings or meetings with usurping priests and apostates from the faith who dare to exercise the duties of an ecclesiastical minister without possessing a legitimate mission or any jurisdiction.”
 
“It is unlawful for the faithful to assist in any active manner, or to take part in the sacred services of non-Catholics.” (1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1258, Paragraph 1
 
Well, I’m not going to be drawn into a philosophical argument…I’ll but my trust in the current teachings of the Church and of God. No need for further discussion, thank you.
 
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Prodigal1984 said:
“It is unlawful for the faithful to assist in any active manner, or to take part in the sacred services of non-Catholics.” (1917 Code of Canon Law, Canon 1258, Paragraph 1
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You do know that we’ve had an updated Code of Canon Law since 1983?
The new one allows us to attend Protestant services as long as we don’t engage in “prohibited” behavior. Which would be stuff like receiving Protestant communion.

An official CAF apologist explains the change in the Canon law quite well on this thread. You might want to read it.
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Could Catholics attend Protestant services before Vatican II? Ask an Apologist
Let’s begin by sifting out whether it was a sin from whether it was a permissible action. Again, sinfulness depends on the individual’s knowledge and consent; the action itself can only be determined permissible or not (or moral or immoral). The common belief of average Catholics of the pre-Vatican-II era was that a Catholic could never attend a Protestant service. This understanding was flawed, but it was based upon the Church’s much more restrictive position on Catholics attending non-Catho…
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I can’t figure out what’s going on with DIERM, but Prodigal1984 is all over this thread talking about how one shouldn’t be going to Protestant services with heretics, and my comment is addressed to him.

The apologist makes clear that prior to Vatican II, Catholics generally believed that it was a sin to go to a Protestant service. I know this is the case because it’s pretty much the teaching I got from my mother in the 1970s. A Catholic wasn’t even supposed to go into a Protestant church in her opinion. Things have changed.
 
Fauken said:
I think @DIERM said this occurred at least 43 years ago, before the 1983 code was in force.
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So, Fauken, are you insinuating my spouse entered into mortal sin, and our marriage is not sacramental? I hope I am misunderstanding, and that you are not being that bold.
 
DIERM said:
So, Fauken, are you insinuating my spouse entered into mortal sin, and our marriage is not sacramental? I hope I am misunderstanding, and that you are not being that bold.
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I’m saying nothing other than that @Prodigal1984 cited the 1917 canon because that would have been the code in force at the time you mentioned.
 
Fauken said:
I’m saying nothing other than that @Prodigal1984 cited the 1917 canon because that would have been the code in force at the time you mentioned.
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But the Church once believed that the earth not the sun was the center for the universe…they know better now…that does not mean that the salvation of those who hypothesized differently, before the new science was accepted by Rome, is in question.
 
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