Attending Protestant Services

[Walty]

I strongly suggest that you 1) talk to a good priest, and 2) in the mean time beg your parents to drop you off at a coffee shop or let you stay in the car.

[Thomas58]

Also this from the Baltimore Catechism:

The First Commandment of God

Lesson 16 from the Baltimore Cathechism: 206. Why does a Catholic sin against faith by taking part in non-Catholic worship?

A Catholic sins against faith by taking part in non-Catholic worship because he thus professes belief in a religion he knows is false.

This is why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. (John 18:37)

[Scriptorium]

In the short term, go with the parents. Stay *outside* the church, and spend that time studying your faith.

In the longer term, work on getting a license and a car. Or try riding a bike, or using public transport. Or ask Father for a car pool buddy who will pick you. Walk. Whatever. Time to become an independent adult.

Overall, never attend their services. Pay attention to the canons just cited. That is a good guide.

As for judgementalism, I don't know what you mean. Objectively the church is outside the Christian Faith, and the people in it are heretics. You don't have to judge their souls. All you are doing is understanding that it is a dangerous place. Do you feel judgmental when you decide not to go into an "adult bookstore" or a strip bar, or some seedy bar? Heck, if you feel sinfully judgemental, then use the time praying for everyone inside.

[Phillipus Iacobus]

In the short term, go with the parents. Stay *outside* the church, and spend that time studying your faith.

In the longer term, work on getting a license and a car. Or try riding a bike, or using public transport. Or ask Father for a car pool buddy who will pick you. Walk. Whatever. Time to become an independent adult.

Overall, never attend their services. Pay attention to the canons just cited. That is a good guide.

As for judgementalism, I don't know what you mean. Objectively the church is outside the Christian Faith, and the people in it are heretics. You don't have to judge their souls. All you are doing is understanding that it is a dangerous place. Do you feel judgmental when you decide not to go into an "adult bookstore" or a strip bar, or some seedy bar? Heck, if you feel sinfully judgemental, then use the time praying for everyone inside.

This.

[Beardly]

In the short term, go with the parents. Stay *outside* the church, and spend that time studying your faith.

In the longer term, work on getting a license and a car. Or try riding a bike, or using public transport. Or ask Father for a car pool buddy who will pick you. Walk. Whatever. Time to become an independent adult.

Overall, never attend their services. Pay attention to the canons just cited. That is a good guide.

As for judgementalism, I don't know what you mean. Objectively the church is outside the Christian Faith, and the people in it are heretics. You don't have to judge their souls. All you are doing is understanding that it is a dangerous place. Do you feel judgmental when you decide not to go into an "adult bookstore" or a strip bar, or some seedy bar? Heck, if you feel sinfully judgemental, then use the time praying for everyone inside.

Well, those other options (bike, walk, etc) simply are out of the question, unless I leave the day before. This is because I live on a farm in the boonies. Carpool is more likely, as people come from all over the county for the TLM. As for driving, I'm working on it. However, I do actually suck at driving.

However, long term aside (I know well enough about that, and don't need to be told), the short term still remains. I noticed that the canons just cited are from the 1917 canon. I cannot, in all intellectual honesty, appeal to them unless they are still in effect. Is there a corresponding canon in the new canon law? If not, how does the relation between the newer and the older codes of canon law work? Is is basically that anything not addressed specifically is still in effect from the old canon law? Or does the new one contradict it? I trust my priest will give me proper instruction (forbidding me from attending, likely, or telling me to sit outside the auditorium, etc).

As for judgmentalism, I realize the difference between what liberals call judgmentalism and what is actually judgmentalism. I'm saying that I can be guilty of the latter (we all should be "guilty" of the former, when it gets down to it). The doughnut shop (or more likely, the bookstore) is a good idea, and avoids both attending a protestant service and putting myself in an occasion of sin, but I will wait until my priest tells me what to do before I talk to my parents.

[Scriptorium]

However, I do actually suck at driving.

You wouldn't be the only one!

However, long term aside (I know well enough about that, and don't need to be told), the short term still remains. I noticed that the canons just cited are from the 1917 canon. I cannot, in all intellectual honesty, appeal to them unless they are still in effect. Is there a corresponding canon in the new canon law? If not, how does the relation between the newer and the older codes of canon law work? Is is basically that anything not addressed specifically is still in effect from the old canon law? Or does the new one contradict it? I trust my priest will give me proper instruction (forbidding me from attending, likely, or telling me to sit outside the auditorium, etc).

The 1917 code is abrogated. What it provides is context, and a way to interpret newer canons, or provide evidence of traditional teachings. I referred you to it because it was a nice nutshell summary of the teaching concerning communio in sacris. Here are canons from the current law:


Can.  923 The Christian faithful can participate in the eucharistic sacrifice and receive holy communion in any Catholic rite, without prejudice to the prescript of ⇒ can. 844. [Canon 844 shows that only valid sacraments are in question. Needless to say, Baptists have no valid rite of the Eucharist.]

Can.  908 Catholic priests are forbidden to concelebrate the Eucharist with priests or ministers of Churches or ecclesial communities which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church.

Can. 1365 A person guilty of prohibited participation in sacred rites (communicatio in sacris) is to be punished with a just penalty.


Which brings us back to the 1917 canons, which provide good guidelines.

As for judgmentalism, I realize the difference between what liberals call judgmentalism and what is actually judgmentalism. I'm saying that I can be guilty of the latter (we all should be "guilty" of the former, when it gets down to it). The doughnut shop (or more likely, the bookstore) is a good idea, and avoids both attending a protestant service and putting myself in an occasion of sin, but I will wait until my priest tells me what to do before I talk to my parents.

To be quite honest, the whole situation you're in is an occasion of sin. Listen to your priest, and try to correct this situation as soon as possible. I wish you well.

[MRose]

To the OP, you could also quote Pope Pius XI's Mortalium Annos, #10:

"So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it."

[Atomagenesis]

Some really solid advice here.

I would like to reiterate the importance of absolutely NOT going inside to even passively observe the heretical service, you don't want any potential heretical ideas entering your mind and you absolutely do not want to converse with heretics on matters of faith or scripture. Ever. At least not until you are well-educated and rock solid in traditional Catholicism and apologetics. With regards to that, find a nice quiet place outside of the Baptist "church" if you are forced to go and just do spiritual reading, if they won't drop you off somewhere else.

What I would really try to do is see if you can find another ride to mass, maybe with someone who lives near you who also goes to the same mass as you. I'm sure if you searched you could find a way to avoid even setting foot in the Baptist parking lot.

I'm sure you will find a way to not have to go, just pray that an opportunity will arise and it will. Once again, just want to reiterate the importance of not attending a heretical assembly or even being present during one. Baptists are voraciously anti-Catholic, and will do anything to try and get you out of Catholicism, so avoid them like the plague.

[Beardly]

Atomagenesis,

I know. I was raised as one.

As for conversing with heretics, however, I'm kind of screwed in that category. I'm a philosophy major. I have to converse with heretics on matters of faith and scripture basically everyday. That's how I became Catholic, as it happens. I don't particularly fear the Southern Baptist breed of heretic, because I know precisely why they are wrong, and why their system of thought is broken. I knew that Baptists were wrong years before I became Catholic. What I am more afraid of is subtle mistakes that I might end up accepting unknowingly, and of implicitly approving of heresy by attending.


Scriptorium,
Thanks. That's what I wanted to know. Now I just have to discuss it with my parents. However, if they get pissed and decide to stop taking me to mass, I think I'll end up just going with them until I can find another ride to mass (within the next two weeks, hopefully). I'll just read the Summa or something during the sermon.

[m.PR]

Something I haven't seen discussed here is what great kindness your parents are rendering you by driving you to Mass every Sunday. If I were Southern Baptist, I wouldn't allow my (hypothetical) son to engage in popery, and I certainly would not encourage him in it by taking him to a service where, as I'd see it, a man in a gown mumbles a dead language. I'm sure there have been many youths in the past who haven't converted to Catholicism because their parents haven't allowed it, so you are very fortunate.

It's likely that your parents' new interest in going to religious services on Sunday is a consequence of you going to Mass on Sundays. It could well be that they just want to you out of Catholicism and into their religion again, but in any case they are interested in religion, and that is a good thing.

The point is that whatever decision you make should take into account your parents' souls as well (and yes, it is possible to turn people away from the Faith by seeming too hardline). From what you've said here, I think you'll be fine.