A ? for a Catholic please

I am by no means an expert, but this sounds to me like something the pastor of the Catholic Church would be unlikely to allow, except perhaps in extraordinary circumstances.

I don't even know how much discretion an individual pastor has in a question like this.

 

I would say it depends on the pastor. I recall that a Christian group was attached by Moslems in India last year. They were attached while worshipping in a Catholic Church that they were borrowing. So perhaps.

 

Really the best thing is to pick up the phone and call a few pastors. I for one honestly don't know.

 

Donna, the situation you inquired about has happened here in the liberal west quite a number of times. It seems that out here the individual pastor of the Catholic church has the discretion to all such use of the church property.

Afterall, their Bingo sessions are open to the general public, and they sometimes hold a casino night, and other very secular events. Now those events do not involve the sanctuary or worship hall, but it is fair to say the pastor may allow the sanctuary to be used for weddings and funerals of non-catholic persons upon request from the Pastors of the non-catholic churches.

 

I would not have a problem with this. We would all be brothers and sisters in Christ, and I would trust that nothing would be done to dishonor the Catholic faith.

 

"Would a Catholic church allow a Baptist church to do a funeral in the Catholic church?"
And now for some real answers.
Yes no problem, whatsoever!!
The real question is, what churchbuilding in particular do you want to use?

This sort of thing is decided on by the administrators of the local church in question. So the people who decide this might not even include the local priest.

In practice less important churches are easier to borrow.
Getting to use a Cathedral is difficult compared to using a small parish church, but not impossible. I've seen it happen in a case where the bishop vehemently disagreed.
'Event' churches specialising in funerals are easiest of all.

 

The following link is to an 'event' church specialising in funerals. The text on the page is about it's architecture and not about funerals by the way.
http://archimon.bravepages.com/gelderland/heiliglandcenakel.html

The right to borrow that church for a day comes authomatically if you want to bury someone in the huge and very beautiful graveyard behind the church.
A few members of our church are buried there. There are practically no statues on the inside of the building, but the walls are covered with very nice murals depicting the Book of Acts.

One of our preachers hates the place, because of it's acoustics. His sermons are fastpaced and peptalk like (think Jimmy Swaggart), and that style doesn't work at all in that building. The way the sound travels through that building forces one to use a slower style of preaching.

It is on the other side of the atlantic so it may not be the ideal location for a funeral service that is planned to take place on US soil.

 

Locally, Holy Spirit Catholic Church is holding mass in a presbyterian church until their church is constructed.

There is nothing wrong with one Christian denomination allowing another Christian denomination use of their facility. However, a facility dedicated to the worship of the Triune God should never be used for the worship of any false God (e.g., Masonic funerals).

Those churches who permit use of their facility for funerals should verify that there is no Masonic participation.

[ September 11, 2003, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: John Gilmore ]

 

My feeling is this: there are NUMEROUS Baptist churches in most areas. WHY would they wish to use a Catholic facility?

A proper burial for the deceased should include the reception of the Eucharist as well as prayers for the deceased. Knowing that Baptists believe in neither of these, I would wonder why a Catholic priest would want to have any sort of ceremony in his parish which is less than complete.

And if I ever hear of our pastor, Fr. Mike, doing such, I WILL raise cain with him about it. But I doubt it will ever happen. He is as uneccumenical and stodgy as I am.

 

I am not particularly fond of ecumenism either and it is my belief that this should only be done in the rarest of circumstances. i.e. the only baptist church in town burned down the week before in the dead of winter in minnesota.

 

The question appear to be one of using RCC facilities, not one of ecuminism. I've seen this happen in my town, so I'd have to say yes.

 

I love this protestant dichotomy stuff. It's got to be one thing to the complete exclusion of another all the time. No ecumenism has a role to play in allowing it more liberally and certainly indifferentism would have an effect.

 

I'm not sure where you're going with that. Locally, our large Baptist church has allowed a small Jewish congregation to use the sanctuary facilities on Friday evenings. Another Baptist church nearby allowed a Korean Methodist congregation to use the sanctuary at 8am until last year, when they had raised enough money to buy their own property. Allowing the Baptists, or any other church, to use larger Roman Catholic facilities for something like a large funeral would be no different.

I guess it's only ecuminism when it involves catholics

 

I've attended quite a few Catholic Weddings, and a number of Catholic funerals. There is very little difference from an observer's (and photographer's which I am) point of view. Many of the Catholic ceremony's nuances often show up in Protestant weddings, and vice versa. The same goes for the Funerals. I see very little difference. So what does it matter, except as pointed out about Masonic or other cultic rites.

 

Well, considering that a Catholic funeral is centered around the Mass, I would think that would be a big difference. What exactly does happen at a Baptist funeral?