Sharing churches permanently with non-Catholics

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CutlerB

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Is there any regulation on permanent sharing of churches with Protestants?

I came across one church that belongs both to Catholics and Protestants in Germany. It is the Cathedral of St Peter in Bautzen.

The Evangelicals (which is not exactly the same here in Germany as the word means in the US) and the Catholics there have been sharing the Cathedral for 500 years.

It’s not a total sharing, though. The Protestants wouldn’t be using the Catholic altar. The cathedral is separated by an iron grid (with a door in it since 1954, another one to come now) into a Catholic part and a Protestant part, two altars.

What are your opinions on this? Are there any Church regulations that govern the sharing of Catholic churches?
 
We Catholics believe that the Catholic Church is the Truth on Earth, it is the only and unique church of Christ, so If you intend to visit protestant churches and make there a place to pray, then i guess you are probably wrongly understanding what catholic is about, and one who thinks it is Okay to support Protestant denominations is comitting the sin of indolence, because our efforts must be to bring protestants, angicans, baptists… to become full catholics! So if you want to be with protestants, bring them to the church, pray with them, okay, but the main effort must always be to bring them to the only and true church of christ. We cannot say to them it is okay to keep being protestants.
 
CutlerB said:
Is there any regulation on permanent sharing of churches with Protestants?

I came across one church that belongs both to Catholics and Protestants in Germany. It is the Cathedral of St Peter in Bautzen.

The Evangelicals (which is not exactly the same here in Germany as the word means in the US) and the Catholics there have been sharing the Cathedral for 500 years.

It’s not a total sharing, though. The Protestants wouldn’t be using the Catholic altar. The cathedral is separated by an iron grid (with a door in it since 1954, another one to come now) into a Catholic part and a Protestant part, two altars.

What are your opinions on this? Are there any Church regulations that govern the sharing of Catholic churches?
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I don’t know the regulations, but i have heard of church sharing here in the U.S. In my state of Nebraska, there was a small town in a ranching part of the state that had only one church. It had a Catholic high altar on one end and a protestant altar on the other, and this church was built in the early 1900’s. There must be some sort of rule for it.
 
I seem to recall that there are some specific canons that deal with this type of thing. But I’m not sure where they are. :o
 
Joe_5859 said:
I seem to recall that there are some specific canons that deal with this type of thing. But I’m not sure where they are. :o
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Like you, I don’t know the Canon, but I do know that military bases do this all of the time. 🤷

Many have a “chapel” that converts to every religion.🤷

Our crucifix was on a pulley system. And we had a Blessed Sacrament Chapel that was small room next to the main chapel.
 
Good question. I have just lived the opposite. Since two years ago I have been going to Catholic masses in Orthodox churches/chapels. And the one time in my life I actually went for Orthodox service it was in one Lutheran church. Go figure… 🙂
 
devonsams said:
We Catholics believe that the Catholic Church is the Truth on Earth, it is the only and unique church of Christ, so If you intend to visit protestant churches and make there a place to pray, then i guess you are probably wrongly understanding what catholic is about, and one who thinks it is Okay to support Protestant denominations is comitting the sin of indolence, because our efforts must be to bring protestants, angicans, baptists… to become full catholics! So if you want to be with protestants, bring them to the church, pray with them, okay, but the main effort must always be to bring them to the only and true church of christ. We cannot say to them it is okay to keep being protestants.
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…I don’t think you even read the op beyond the title
 
CutlerB said:
Is there any regulation on permanent sharing of churches with Protestants?

I came across one church that belongs both to Catholics and Protestants in Germany. It is the Cathedral of St Peter in Bautzen.

The Evangelicals (which is not exactly the same here in Germany as the word means in the US) and the Catholics there have been sharing the Cathedral for 500 years.

It’s not a total sharing, though. The Protestants wouldn’t be using the Catholic altar. The cathedral is separated by an iron grid (with a door in it since 1954, another one to come now) into a Catholic part and a Protestant part, two altars.

What are your opinions on this? Are there any Church regulations that govern the sharing of Catholic churches?
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Since this has been going on for 500 years, I am sure that it has been looked at and is ok.
Sounds like the areas used between the 2 are clearly separated with the different altars etc.
 
robwar said:
Since this has been going on for 500 years, I am sure that it has been looked at and is ok.
Sounds like the areas used between the 2 are clearly separated with the different altars etc.
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But with soon-to-be two large doors… 🙂
 
As long as they are not using it for profane uses it would seem permissible under canon 1210. I know of a church where High Church Anglicans and Catholics use the same building, but the Eucharist is not reserved in the Tabernacle after Mass. I also don’t beleive they use the same altar.

Normally the Eucharist would be removed from the Tabernacle if the building is shared, so I’m not sure exactly how it would be handled if you essentially are partitioning the physical building off. I guess the question is if the protestants use the “Catholic side” as overflow seating and if the worship services are derogatory to Catholics (i.e. sermons calling the Pope the anti-christ or calling the Host degrading names ala Jack Chick).
 
It must be permissible. In UK catholics use CofE churches because their parish may not have its own church.
 
Bergon said:
It must be permissible. In UK catholics use CofE churches because their parish may not have its own church.
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In case others get the wrong impression, I feel I should add ‘occasionally’ to this claim. it’s certainly not the general rule!
 
maryjk said:
Like you, I don’t know the Canon, but I do know that military bases do this all of the time. 🤷

Many have a “chapel” that converts to every religion.🤷

Our crucifix was on a pulley system. And we had a Blessed Sacrament Chapel that was small room next to the main chapel.
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Yes this has been the set up at every base I’ve been to. Statues in boxes with closing doors, pulley system operates crucifix on a pulley, cross on the other side, blessed sacrament chapel (small as a closet) was also where daily mass is held.

The base chapel is available for use by any approved religious service or meeting. Protestant, Jewish prayer meeting, and Wiccan are just a few of the ones I’ve seen.
 
A few years ago St Elisabeth Seton shared quarters with St Barnabas Episcopal. Not permenently but for but for the time St Elisabeth was being built. They both used the same altar but had separate tabernacles.

The churches have always gotten on well. Before that St John’s Episcopal gave St Mary’s a pulpit and St Mary’s gave the Episcopalians a censor.
 
Honour said:
Yes this has been the set up at every base I’ve been to. Statues in boxes with closing doors, pulley system operates crucifix on a pulley, cross on the other side, blessed sacrament chapel (small as a closet) was also where daily mass is held.

The base chapel is available for use by any approved religious service or meeting. Protestant, Jewish prayer meeting, and Wiccan are just a few of the ones I’ve seen.
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I have actually seen a Blessed Sacrament chapel that had a few pews and could easily seat 30 people. 👍

I also remember holy water fonts that turned into the wall.

For our Sunday evening Mass, the CYO group would walk around turning the fonts around, opening the doors for the statues and pulling the crucifix out. And after Mass, we would put everything back.
 
maryjk said:
Like you, I don’t know the Canon, but I do know that military bases do this all of the time. 🤷

Many have a “chapel” that converts to every religion.🤷

Our crucifix was on a pulley system. And we had a Blessed Sacrament Chapel that was small room next to the main chapel.
Click to expand...
We have one of those travelling crosses in our local ex-American military Base. One chapel for all seems common in the US military while the Canadian military usually had both a Catholic chapel and a Protestant one.
 
paperwight66 said:
In case others get the wrong impression, I feel I should add ‘occasionally’ to this claim. it’s certainly not the general rule!
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That is not correct. Parishes that do not have their own parish church building or a chapel of ease or a schoolroom use the local Anglican parish church on a regular, not an occasional, basis. Perhaps if you feel a need to correct my posts you would please kindly correct them with the correct facts. Nobody sees this as an ideal solution but it is better than the alternative of having no where to celebrate Mass.
 
Bergon said:
That is not correct. Parishes that do not have their own parish church building or a chapel of ease or a schoolroom use the local Anglican parish church on a regular, not an occasional, basis. Perhaps if you feel a need to correct my posts you would please kindly correct them with the correct facts. Nobody sees this as an ideal solution but it is better than the alternative of having no where to celebrate Mass.
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I believe he/she was saying that not many parishes in England have no church to have Mass in.
 
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