Priest Answers Questions from Protestants

Hello internet, my name is Fr.  Casey Cole. I’m a Franciscan priest,   and today I’m answering  questions from Protestants.

Do Catholics believe that someone married in a  Protestant Church is married in the eyes of God? As long as both parties were Protestant  Christians, yes. That is a valid,   sacramental marriage in our eyes. 

But if one is a non-Christian,   it’s not valid because they’re not  yet baptized, and if one is Catholic,   it’s not valid because they did so  out of communion with the Church. Why can’t Protestants receive Catholic Communion?   What do Catholics believe about  the Lutheran/Anglican Eucharist?

The key word here is communion. While some  Protestants, like Lutherans and Anglicans,   believe in the real presence of Christ  in the Eucharist, which is great,   there are other things that severely divide  us, such as the view of the priesthood,   approach to other sacraments, and so on…  leading us to be very much NOT in communion. For Catholics, the Eucharist effects what it  signifies, namely, that it makes us into the   Body of Christ, a communion of faith.

If we are  not actually in communion, then it is a false   symbol and defective action. We don’t want to look  down on other’s Eucharistic celebrations, but we   simply cannot take part in them or invite others  to ours, until real communion is possible. Can Protestants can have a relationship  with Jesus without the Church?

Obviously people can have a relationship  with Jesus without the Church. He gave us   his Church as a foundation and guide, but God  is by no means bound by temporal things like   the Church or sacraments. We know that God  speaks in the hearts of people even before   they’re baptized, so of course he can speak  to Protestants who are already Christians.

That said, I would hesitate to say that one can  experience the fullness of a relationship without   being a part of the Church. If Jesus founded  the Church and uses it to guide his people   throughout the ages, how can someone say that they  fully know Jesus if they ignore what he gave us? The Church is not just some inconsequential club,   a social gathering for self-help.

The  Church is the living embodiment of   Christ’s authority on earth. Choosing to  not be a part of it makes a difference. If I put aside my reservations about actually  praying to the saints- why would I instead of   just praying to God- obviously you can  do both by why not just pray to God?

Simply put, because the community matters. The  Church matters. We are not just a collection   of individuals, all independently going to  God on our own, we are family, a group of   people that makes us into something larger than  ourselves and so care about more than ourselves.

When we are in need of prayer, we ask our  friends and family members to pray for us,   in part because we think that their  added prayers speak louder to God,   but maybe more importantly, because  we care to share our lives, our needs,   our hopes with others so that we may be  brought closer in communion with them. If we do this with the Church here on earth, why  wouldn’t we do this with the Church in heaven? Why are all Catholic people in  Hollywood movies either Irish or   Italian when one of the biggest Catholic  demographics is actually in South America?

I don’t claim to know why Hollywood  does anything, but my guess is What is capital T Tradition and how is  it different from regular traditions. Let’s answer this by way of analogy. What is  the Tradition of the United States?

Freedom,   Equality, Democracy. These are the foundation  stones that make up our country, the guiding   spirit that have always been and cannot change,  otherwise we wouldn’t be the same country. The traditions, lower case t,  of our country are different.  

We might say fireworks on the fourth  of July, the colors red/white/blue,   elections in November. These are things that we’ve  done for a long time, but they’re expressions of   our guiding spirit, not the spirit itself. If  they changed, we’d still be the same country.

For Catholicism, it’s the same. Our  Tradition is the guiding spirit that   has been with us since before even the Old  Testament was written through to today—that   God is accessible through sacramentality,  that he speaks to us through mediators,   and that he desires for us all  to be in communion with him. Compare this to the traditions,  lower case t, of the Latin language,   the Church being headquartered in  Rome, wearing certain colors on   certain feast days.

If we got rid of them  tomorrow, we’d still be the same Church. I struggle with tradition being  equal to or greater than Scripture First, to clarify, it’s never “greater” than  Scripture, because Scripture is the Word of God,   but it does come before. And the reason  for that is both historical and practical.

Historically, Tradition comes before Scripture  because, well, there was a time when the Church   existed before the Bible was written. What  guided the Church if there was no Scripture?   Tradition did… the oral history of God’s  people, the passed-down spirit of people   who had seen and known God for centuries,  including those who knew Jesus himself.

But practically, it comes before as well  because it is a lens through which we read   Scripture. As much as we’d like to think  that Scripture is clear and unambiguous,   the existence of hundreds of denominations proves  otherwise. What we need is the foundation of   Tradition, the principles that have held  the people of God together for centuries,   to help us understand what  the Bible actually means.

How do parishioners have the courage to make  confession and continue to go to church? I can’t speak for them but I can speak for  myself—I trust in the seal of confession,   that a priest would rather die  than reveal someone’s sins,   and I know that true forgiveness comes only  when we are vulnerable enough before ourselves,   God, and the Church, and so it’s  a “risk” that I have to take. Could a Catholic priest ever hear  my confession as a Protestant?

Believe it or not, yes, but only in special  situations. 1. When a Protestant is in the   process of entering the Catholic Church but hasn’t  yet been received, or 2.

if the Protestant is in   danger of death, unable to approach a minister of  their own community, and asks for it on their own. So, everyday run-of-the-mill situations, no,   but it is possible. The same goes for  the Eucharist and anointing of the sick.

Do you REALLY have to believe  in all the Marian apparitions? We REALLY… don’t. What the Church does is approve  certain apparitions as worthy of devotion,   but it never compels Catholics to  participate in Marian devotions   or take them as dogmatic teaching. 

For us, they are what is considered   “private revelation. ” We’re allowed to  put our faith in them, but not required. I'm interested in converting to Catholicism from   Protestantism.

My only hang  up is Mary being without sin. This one, however, is pretty important,   but I get the hang up. Such a statement  is never explicitly found in scripture,   but… we do find in the Gospel of Luke Gabriel  telling Mary that she is full of grace.

That’s not nothing. I would contend that it  would be impossible to be FULL of grace if   one was in a state of sin, so at the very  least, Mary was without sin at that point   in her life. Is it inconceivable that the  person God chose to give birth to his Son,   who literally raised Jesus on earth, might  be capable of choosing the good always?

Especially when you consider the teaching  of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary,   like Adam and Even, mind you,  were created without sin and so   didn’t suffer from concupiscence,  it seems at least plausible to me. How does the Catholic Church views ecumenism,   and what hurdles stand in the  way of a possible reunification? The work of ecumenism in the Catholic Church  has grown tremendously over the past 100 years,   most notably because of the work of  the Second Vatican Council.

Since then,   we have fully accepted the authentic  nature of baptism in other faiths and   ceased calling Protestants heretics, rather  focusing with sadness on our divisions. As far as hurdles, it depends which type of  Protestant we’re talking about. Evangelical   and Fundamentalist Christians bear little  semblance to Catholicism and so even the   basics like the Eucharist, approach to scripture,  views on the end times, and nature of God in the   world are major issues.

We are very far  from reunification with these Churches. Anglicans, Episcopalians, and Lutherans… we’re  getting closer. We have similar understandings   of justification, the Eucharist,  sacramental worldview, scripture,   and liturgy.

Where we are divided, and seem to  be growing even more divided in recent years,   is in regard to the authority of the  bishop, nature of the priesthood,   LGBT issues, and sometimes abortion.  These are still big hurdles. Rome claims to be the one true church  and Protestants are going to hell.

What   Rome means by ecumenism is when are  you all going to become Catholic? No, but sort of us yes. No, we do not think  that Protestants are going to Hell.

Yes,   we do kind of think that you  should become more Catholic. But more than an ego thing, think about it. Our  Church has been around for 2000 years.

We stand   on the shoulders of those who actually  wrote the Bible, passed on the Christian   faith to every nation. Are there some human  elements that need cleaning up? For sure.

And   we hope that Protestants will help reform the  Catholic Church where needed. But in terms of   meeting in the middle and leaving this Church  to found a new one… that’s kind of your thing. Is it a good thing that marriages  between Protestants and Catholics   aren’t as looked down upon as they used to?

Is it good that people aren’t ostracized for this  anymore? Absolutely! But that doesn’t mean it is   without difficulty.

Faith in the home is arguably  the most important building block of a family,   and trying to manage that with two different  faiths is tricky. How do you raise your kids?   Does one win out?

Does one get looked down  on as lesser? Children pick up on everything,   and seeing division like this can  lead some to believe that truth   is just a matter of preference, that  there isn’t a right or wrong answer   to anything. This isn’t always the  case, but something to be wary of.

And finally, I would love to convert as  a adult with a long and storied history   with Christianity and Seminarian, but  it takes so long, and it is rather hard   to find parishes offering RCIA. Why is  it so difficult to become a Catholic? Honestly, it doesn’t have to be.

While I love the  RCIA, now called the OCIA, as a way of initiating   people into the faith, we have to remember that  it is designed for the uncatechized, unbaptized   person. When people who have lived their entire  lives as Christians want to become a Catholic,   they SHOULD NOT be put through this entire  process. The Church itself says that the process   should be adapted in these situations, and a  Protestant can be received into the Catholic   Church whenever they are deemed ready.

I know it  creates difficulties for limited parish staffs,   but please, fellow Catholics, do not  condescend to people who are already   Christians and do not make them jump through  needless hoops. Get to know the candidate,   find out what they need to be Catholic, and then  let them in. It doesn’t need to be this difficult.

Thanks for all who asked  questions. If you have more,   leave them in the comments and  I’ll do my best to get to them all!