Praying in ex-catholic churches

[allaussie]

Hi everyone, I’m planning on traveling to the UK soon (hopefully sometime next year) and I would like to go see the spot where St Thomas Becket was Martyred in Canterbury Cathedral. However although it was originally built as a Catholic cathedral since Henry VIII it obviously has been used for other purposes, so is it OK for me to go in to what was a Catholic church and is now an Anglican church and pray to a Catholic saint? I was in the UK a few years ago and I really wasn’t sure how to approach these medieval churches which have been converted to Anglican use (i.e. whether to approach them like a Catholic church or a non-Catholic church).

 

[mercygate]

Hi everyone, I’m planning on traveling to the UK soon (hopefully sometime next year) and I would like to go see the spot where St Thomas Becket was Martyred in Canterbury Cathedral. However although it was originally built as a Catholic cathedral since Henry VIII it obviously has been used for other purposes, so is it OK for me to go in to what was a Catholic church and is now an Anglican church and pray to a Catholic saint? I was in the UK a few years ago and I really wasn’t sure how to approach these medieval churches which have been converted to Anglican use.

Go ahead and pray.

If I went into Hagia Sophia, I would have no qualms about praying to Our Lord, despite the fact that it was once a mosque and is now a museum. The very stones have been saturated with the prayers of the faithful.

Jesus knows who you are.

 

[Newbie2]

Why not?

You can pray at home, at your Parish, in prison…anywhere.

 

[SeanTom]

Pray anywhere and anytime - God will always hear your prayers. He will be pleased to hear from you whatever the circumstances.

 

[chris_molter]

Absolutely you should pray in Canterbury to St Thomas! I did while still an Anglican and three years later I came into full communion with the great Saint!

Remember, St Thomas died there in defense of the Catholic Faith! It’s such a humbling thing standing where he was martyred. Words fail you.

 

[allaussie]

Thanks to everyone who answered, it helps a lot, I still feel a little odd about the status of these churches, whether to look at how they were used for the first 500 years of their life or the second but it does make sense that God will still hear and understand me. Seeing the evidence of the 16th and 17th century attempts to remove all traces of their Catholic past (through the destruction of all the images such as stained glass windows, whitewashing over murals etc.) was a slightly unpleasant feeling when I visited these churches 5 years ago. Partly because as a historian I lamented the loss of all that history and partly because it reminded me of what I have read about a lot of common people’s reaction to the change (real fear about what this would mean for their immortal souls) plus the violent destruction of the monasteries, but I’d like to go back and take another look because the buildings themselves are a testament to a community’s faith.