Is it okay to go to a christian church and a catholic church?

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The Church founded by Christ. Christ established a Church in approximately 33 AD. I searched and searched until I FOUND that original Church!!
 
Your husband should join the Knights of Columbus! Have you joined any womens’ groups that operate in your diocesis? I wish you continued growth in the Catholic Faith.
 
Yes, we have both joined several groups. The Knights of Columbus is not appealing to my husband. He has been attending the men’s study group for two years. He is also a participant in the Rosary Makers, and he a participant in a confraternity.

I attend the weekly Bible study, and I play for the parish chlldren’s choir.

Because we both work full time, and because we are trying to help with the care of my husband’s increasingly infirm parents, we don’t have the time available during the day to be part of quite a few of the groups.

What we’ve found is that we enjoy the groups, but when they end, that’s that. No one wants to do anything outside of the groups. No one wants to go to dinner, or come over to watch a sporting event, or get together at a local festival, or go to a concert. We just don’t seem to have any friends outside of the parish doors. Again, I think it’s because everyone else is busy with their families and also with friends that they have known since their school years.

But that’s not the way it was with the Evangelical groups. We were always getting together with friends. Sigh.

Maybe it’s just part of aging.
 
How about a real life example of somebody who goes to two churches, Catholic and Protestant?

If it’s okay to mention, you will find many articles if you just websearch Senator “Marco Rubio goes to two Churches”. I note, he was in the news too, for posting Bible verses on his own twitter account.

A few times, I went to an ecumenical gathering on Saturday night. I actually enjoyed this. So, I’m posting in saying, it looks like most are against the idea. I think there could be some benefits on a limited basis. Would one go every Sunday of the year? That would make up a lot of services. I use to go to that Ecumenical service just from time to time.
 
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If it’s ecumenical in the sense that it’s approved by your parish or by a Catholic parish priest and the Catholics actually have a hand in putting together the gathering, I think it’s probably okay to go. The point of ecumenical gatherings is to build bridges with other faiths, without being in a situation where you feel like you’re betraying your own faith by spending time with the other, or feel like you’re being “recruited” by the other faith.

I would feel much better about attending an ecumenical gathering than I would about just walking into the local Protestant church. It would be a way of expressing that I am interested in the people of the other faith without sending some signal that my own faith isn’t the true one, or that I am looking for another church to join, or that I think all churches are the same.
 
garycouch said:
There is no such thing like a " perfect Church " ,we all got flaws and are all striving towards perfection.
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You are right, we are all sinners and are striving for holiness. I agree the people who are in the Church are not perfect.

We have to know, though, what is the Church.

The Church that Christ founded is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of Christ, partake of the same Sacraments, and are governed by their lawful pastors under one visible Head.
The visible Church, the Holy Catholic Church itself, can not err in the teaching of doctrine and morals because Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would remain with it forever and save it from error. Though the people in the Church are still striving for holiness, the Church itself by the guidance of the Holy Spirit is holy.

Some scriptural verses regarding the Church:

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said “He would build His Church”. He didn’t say churches.

Matthew 18:17 He said, speaking of quarrels and disagreements “tell it to the Church”. He didn’t say tell it to your particular church.

John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach you all truth”. Not many different truths.

In 1 Timothy 3:15 He said, “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth”. Again He did not say churches.
garycouch said:
Are you saying there was no CHURCH before the birth of Christ?
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There was not a Christian Church before Christ.

They who lived before Christ became man could be saved by belief in the Redeemer to come and by keeping the Commandments of God. The Catholic church is the universal Church today but this was not here before the coming of Christ. At that time the true faith was confined to one people – the descendants of Abraham.

God bless
 
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Hello.

How much do you actually know about the Catholic faith? It may be more helpful to exhaust 1st the treasure troves of the Catholic faith. For example, how much history of the Catholic church are you aware of? Have you read and understood the writings of Thomas Aquinas? St. Augustine? Do you have a philosophy degree yet? A Catholic theology degree? An advanced theology degree? You might want to try these before going to other sources.

My two cents.
 
You are not going to expand your faith by going to a church which is not the true one. Only he Catholic Church has the fullness of faith.

You should not attend a false church.
 
The Jewish Faith worshiped (worships) the One True God. Of course they pre-date Christianity.

The Christian Church did not exist before the Incarnation of Christ.
 
This!

I take part in a in a large inter-faith group a couple of times each year. I really look forward to these gatherings!

Used to be part of an ecumenical group in my town, however, it was a quasi political group as well. When I had a change of political beliefs, I was no longer welcome.

Our priests are involved in ecumenical ministers prayer and fellowship groups.

It is healthy for a strong Catholic to be part of these groups. We can break down stereotypes and do some “myth busting”.
 
I am not positive but I got the impression this person might have been rather young.

I think it is very important to be extremely well grounded in your Catholic faith and know it well before attending any ecumenical service. It is so easy to get pulled away. I know this from experience.

I hope the OP seeks advice from a good priest or spiritual advisor before attending any non-Catholic or ecumenical service.
 
There is only one Church established by Jesus Christ, which is the Catholic Church. By denying Christ’s Church, you deny Him. Outside the Church there is no salvation. Anyone who denies this truth, perishes. You are betraying God by leaving the Church.
 
I don’t know if you have found any of the answers so far helpful. Too me it sounds like you want permission and support to go to non Catholic churches but you just aren’t going to get that here.

As a Roman Catholic you need to go to mass every Sunday. I find it unlikely that you will be able to sustain attending two church services (mass + protestant service) every Sunday. If you wish to hear non Catholic perspectives there is a tremendous amount of protestant Christian media and social media including TV stations.

What you listen to will shape how you view God, Christianity, yourself and the world. Protestants have a wide array of views which are often not the Catholic view. You will internalize some of their views. this might seem fine but it could result in you having a disjointed and incongruous view of the world.
 
Thanks Tis_Bearself, I’m still learning this posting system here.

What I can see happening is that Ecumenical service I went to was “Pentecostal Oriented”, I know, there’s a Catholic Pentecostal movement, the name escapes me right off, sorry…but it was very different than anything I had seen. It made me at least, curious and yes, I found out about it from a member of our own CC.

So, there might be “non-Catholic” Churches that might have some feature that makes one curious. I have never been to a Traditional (or other) Lutheran service, I may have watched one on TV once, and I noted, that the service had similarities to the Mass. There probably are some, repeating myself, features, of some Non-Catholic Churches that some Catholics might find of interest.

Also, what if one lived in an area where they were interested in Catholic “Pentecostalism” but there was none of that around where they lived? It sounds like it could happen.
 
Could just be that you are surrounded by a lot of introverts or people who like to compartmentalise their lives. (I am one of them). For example I work in a Catholic college and there are colleagues who socialise with each other out of work, have each other as FB friends etc etc get involved with social events organised by the college.
For me if I socialise with those people, nice tho they are, I feel like im at work and why would I want to spend my leisure time doing that? That could be it. They are happy to keep church and social lives separate. It’s ok tho
 
Some of the answers that you are getting here seem to me to be rather extreme. I entirely agree that it is simply not feasible to worship simultaneously in two very different Christian traditions. I think it would be quite confusing if you were going to Mass at a Catholic Church every Sunday and then also going to a Protestant service at another time of day every Sunday. More than that, I’m not really sure why you’d want to, unless there was something very specific to be gained from the Protestant service.

In fact, I’ll contradict myself by saying that if I lived near to an Anglican cathedral or similar I suppose I could imagine making a regular habit of going to Evensong, which is basically Vespers translated into 16th-century English with very good music (typically no sermon on weekdays and even on Sundays Anglican sermons are usually rather light on any doctrinal content). Or if I lived near to an Orthodox Church that had a beautiful choir I could imagine going to listen to that (I don’t understand Byzantine Greek or Church Slavonic so I wouldn’t pick up any doctrinal differences anyway).

But I don’t think that is what you are talking about. I think you are talking about going to Protestant services with a strong emphasis on teaching, which I think is quite a different thing to maybe going to an Anglican or Orthodox service for the meditative aspect with little or no teaching element. The sort of Protestant church I imagine you are going to probably teaches things like substitutionary penal atonement, which is not going to help you to grow in your faith. And since you seem to be uncertain about whether the Catholic Church is even Christian you may be quite vulnerable to absorbing some bad teaching without realising it.

In general, I don’t think there is anything wrong with worshipping at non-Catholic churches on occasions. Since I was received into the Church I have certainly been to services at Protestant and Orthodox churches, mainly because I have friends who are Protestant and Orthodox. In the case of the Pentecostal ones their services are about three hours long and pretty weird, so I put up with it out of politeness and curiosity. Anglican services are short and tolerable and occasionally have good aspects such as the music and Eastern Orthodox services are long but they have a beautiful liturgy and we acknowledge the validity of their sacraments. I know Catholic priests, religious, and laypeople who also sometimes go to non-Catholic services. It’s good to sometimes get together as Christians and share the things that unite us rather than focusing on the things that divide us.
 
gcastellanos2 said:
I was born and raised catholic and I still practice my catholic faith but I have recently been going to a christian church not because I want to change my religion but because I want to expand my faith.
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@gcastellanos2, this is counterintuitive. It is as if you had earned your Ph.D in quantum physics, but then decided to study alchemy because you wanted to expand your knowledge of science! You have been given a great gift: to have been born into the one true Faith, the only faith with the fullness of truth and the light of God’s love. Do not obscure that light by wilfully drinking from the fountain of error and confusion.
 
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