Can Catholics Attend A Protestant Church Service, Wedding or Funeral?

The short answer is yes.

There are many Catholics in mixed marriages (A Catholic married to a spouse of another denomination) and to keep peace they attend both our Holy Mass and  their spouse's church service.

Catholics may also question whether they should go to a Wedding or Funeral of a non- Catholic at a non-Catholic church.

It's important to note here that the Catholic Church does not prohibit attending any non-Catholic church for any reason.

Some may argue that you are giving legitimacy to non-Catholic churches and practices or somehow showing approval of their way of faith. However, most protestant church services are about prayer, hymns, bible readings and a sermon.

Prayer: Prayer is prayer. Protestant pray Christian Prayers and some of the ones they pray are also used by Catholics. There is absolutely nothing wrong with participating in prayer with anyone, even at a protestant church.

Hymns: Again, hymns are prayers and some of them may be common to what we sing in our Catholic churches. There is nothing wrong with signing along, in prayer.

Bible Readings: Again, we read the bible, they read the bible. You may not agree with some added commentary by the pastor but there is no sin in listening to it in church.

This may be a surprise to some but the Catholic church encourages you to do at a non-Catholic church as it's members do. This includes preaching and doing the readings if invited by the Pastor. The one exception is that a Catholic must not participate in a non-Catholic communion.

A Catholic must not take communion at a non-Catholic church because it is not a valid Eucharist. Only an ordained Catholic Priest can see over at valid Eucharist. So, any Eucharist performed by a non-Catholic pastor is invalid by nature. Since we take the validity of taking in the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist very seriously, it isn't acceptable to participate in an invalid one.

Here is the Catholic Church's stand:

Sharing in Non-Sacramental Liturgical Worship
116. By liturgical worship is meant worship carried out according to books, prescriptions and customs of a Church or ecclesial Community, presided over by a minister or delegate of that Church or Community. This liturgical worship may be of a non-sacramental kind, or may be the celebration of one or more of the Christian sacraments. The concern here is non-sacramental worship.

117. In some situations, the official prayer of a Church may be preferred to ecumenical services specially prepared for the occasion. Participation in such celebrations as Morning or Evening Prayer, special vigils, etc., will enable people of different liturgical traditions—Catholic, Eastern, Anglican and Protestant—to understand each other's community prayer better and to share more deeply in traditions which often have developed from common roots.

118. In liturgical celebrations taking place in other Churches and ecclesial Communities, Catholics are encouraged to take part in the psalms, responses, hymns and common actions of the Church in which they are guests. If invited by their hosts, they may read a lesson or preach.

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My Thoughts on RCIA, Easter Vigil and Confirmation

As I've noted elsewhere on the blog, I was in the process of converting to the Catholic faith through RCIA.

RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) has been a great experience for me. I had enrolled and started the process several years ago but a sudden change in jobs, moving and other life issues resulted in dropping from the program. Over the past several weeks (7 months, I think) I have met several great Catholics who have influenced my conversion and faith. We had a great group of RCIA leaders, a mix of parishioners, priests and a Sister. They were all great and very knowledgeable in the faith and I'm glad to say that they are in my faith "family tree".

Our RCIA group was lead by a Benedictine Sister. Each week either a parishioner, priest or the Sister would cover one of the several topics ranging from Church History, moral issues, what Catholics believe, the Scripture, prayer, and just about anything else that is important to our faith. We had nice handouts and then the leader for that week would most of the time have some extra tidbits to hand out and talk about. We also read the coming week's Mass readings and discuss the meanings of them. The result is a very good education on the Church and Faith.

Again, we had a great group. The leaders were great as mention above but we also had an outstanding group of candidates. Our group of candidates was 6 people, two men, four women. We had a very social group and I think we would all say that we've made several new friends and have learned a lot from each other over this process.  Everyone has a level of dedication to the program that far exceeded my expectations.

I guess this long process of conversion is what weeds out those who are serious and those that are not and I think that's a good thing. I think it's great that before you are confirmed, you will be informed of exactly what you are getting into and what is expected. I think that it's not good for the church to be just confirming people to boost numbers, but it's great to boost numbers with informed, educated members who understand the faith.


I will miss RCIA when we finish next month.

I was confirmed and welcomed into the Church on Saturday at Easter Vigil. This was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I didn't feel like this was just some thing we do and we'd just get it over with. To me, it was the ultimate welcome to the Church. I was surprised at how genuine and excited the members of the church were to welcome us to the Church. I guess I just assumed that most people would just think, "good for you, now lets get this done". This was far from the truth. As my classmates and our sponsors stood up front and went thought confirmation I watched the parishioner's. So many had such big prideful smiles on their faces.  Another very nice thing was that our Church has a school attached and every grade and the youth group all wrote us each a nice welcome letter.

The church was decked in white and gold, the priest wore great vestments of white and gold. There were many more candles, and a fountain blessed near the altar. The dark church, the lighting of the fire and the paschal candle. The prayers in candle light. It made for a great atmosphere of symbolism to open the mass, an aspect of the Catholic Church that I find far underrated by most people. This was to be the culmination of the Resurrection and through God's Grace our conversion.

You couldn't help comparing the candidates situation and part in the Mass to the Resurrection. The comparison is that Jesus has Risen and in a sense the candidates are experiencing a transition to the light as well. All in all, this was a great experience and I couldn't think of a better way to initiate new members (RCIA process, Easter Vigil). I think it also highlights depth and thought that the church puts into all things. Everything has a reason, everything is meaningful and has a correct way of doing them.

My next objective (besides, obviously, living faithful Catholic life):

Joining The Knights of Columbus. After Easter Vigil I was asked by a couple members of our local KoC chapter if I'd like to join. Having done much research on the KoC, I think it's right up my alley.

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Solemnity of the Annunciation, the Non-Fasting Friday of Lent

Today is the Solemnity of the Annuciation!

On the Solemnity of the Annuciation we celebrate the Angel Gabriel's visit to the Holy Mother. Gabriel appeared to Mary in Nazareth and :

 ²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
 ²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
 ³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
 ³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”
 ³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:26-38, New International Version, ©2011)

So, today we celebrate the Holy Mother Mary saying "YES" to God and taking on this huge undertaking and later suffering her child's tourture and death. The thing to meditate on today is saying "YES" to God. Too often we deny him, most people probably deny him everyday in some small way (me included).  Today, we focus particularly on just saying "yes" to what God demands of us and try to continue it for the rest of the year.

Fasting and Abstinance:
Do Catholics fast or abstain from meat on the Annunciation?

No, you are not required to fast or abstain on the Solemnity of the Annunciation.

The reason is that Solemnities are condsidered the "feasts of feasts". Solemnities are Holy Days and we are not required to fast or abstain on Holy Days, we are to celebrate on holy days.

Canon 1251  Abstinence from eating meat or another food according to the prescriptions of the conference of bishops is to be observed on Fridays throughout the year unless (nisi) they are solemnities; abstinence and fast are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and on the Friday of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

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Falling Upward by Fr. Richard Rohr

I just recieved my advanced reader's copy of this Fr. Rohr's newest book, "Falling Upward".

It's a book about the world's focus on the first half of life at the expense of the second half. It appears to be targeted at the 50+ crowd so it should be interesting to see if it applies or has a use for someone my age (mid 30's),

For those that don't know, Fr. Rohr is a very prolific Catholic author. He's Franciscan with a master's in theology and currently loves in a hermitage. Fr. Rohr is also a great speark much like Fr. Corapi.

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Contemporary Catholic Theology: A Reader

I'm in the middle of reading this book. Great stuff if you are a theology/bible nerd.

From what I can tell. it's a complete guide to the theology of the Catholic Church. It' written in a format of an anthology of articles of some of the best minds in the Catholic theology.

The book covers scripture, dogma, history, morality.... just about everything. Now it's not a comprehensive guide to all of the subjects, but it's a great overview of most of the theology of the church.

It's very detailed and very dense so it does not suite anyone with a short attention span and I wouldn't recommend it to total newbies.

It's a cost effective read as well because copies can be found on Amazon for a couple bucks.

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Fr. Corapi accused of "Conduct unbecoming of a priest".

Fr. Corapi has been accused of having immoral relations with an adult female and participating in drug use.

Fr. Corapi is a highly regarded Catholic speaker. He's noted for his journey to faith, from a wealthy man to a homeless drug addict to Catholic Priest. He is one of the most well known and respected Catholic speakers and makes frequent appearences on EWTN.

I have a hard time believing any of this. Plenty of priests have done plenty of bad things but many, many more have done great things. Fr. Corapi is clearly in the category of people that I'd find it's highly unlikely that would do this.

Personally, I think that this is an example of the Church and priests having been kicked around the media. Priests are assumed guilty in the media now much in the same way a gang member would be. It's a sad state when someone can make an allegation like this and basically the preist has no real way to defend himself.

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Whose Church? by Daniel C. Maguire

I saw this on the shelf in the dollar store today and couldn't resist picking it up. It's a self proclaimed guide to the liberalism and Catholicism.

I have to admit upfront that I'm very much on the traditional side of the church and the conservative side in politics. I picked up this book because I wanted to see how someone might argue a liberal side to Catholicism.

My experience so far with the Catholic faith is that many of the biggest issues in the church right now (gay marriage, moral sexuality, abortion...ect) are very much conservative values. I've found that the values of the Catholic church are much stronger conservative values as a whole than  it is liberal values.

Granted, there are always good liberal values like providing for the poor, children, women and fighting for equal rights that are also in line with church values. However, these are not exclusively liberal ideas as many conservatives also believe in these basic ideas. The question is at what extent are you willing to sacrifice freedom and self responsibility (a biblical ideal) to help everyone else?

"If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their own work quietly and to earn their own living."

Thessalonians 3:10-12

 "Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward You are serving the Lord Christ."

Colossians 3:23-24


Those that work and work hard will be blessed by God. Liberalism takes this to a new level, you don't take responsibility for your actions and you work as little as possible to get by.

With this in mind (and my rant over), it should be interesting to see what I think of this book.

Review to come.

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