Crossing the Street. Robert R LaRochelle
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the question ‘Why?’ i.e. ‘Why did I leave?’ While most have been kind, in fact, the overwhelming majority, several think that I did a bad thing. One day I asked one of these critical individuals if he thought that Protestants had any chance to go to heaven. He said assuredly ‘Of course they do!’ What I discovered in reflecting upon that conversation was that he really meant that it’s OK for someone born Protestant to be Protestant, but there is something inherently wrong in someone ‘who has the true faith’ proceeding to turn around and give it up!
This all evinces itself in so many different ways indeed! Many Catholics operate under what I would label the ‘more principle’ in distinguishing their faith from that of their Protestant counterparts. This centrality of the Eucharist and what it is serves as a driving force behind such actively progressive Catholic organizations as Voice of the Faithful43 and CORPUS.44 In their literature, CORPUS, an organization of priests, many of whom have left active ministry to marry, argue that by not ordaining married men and moving toward the ordination of women, the church is in danger of ‘losing the Eucharist’ i.e. there will not be priests around to say Mass and Catholic access to this central act of worship will be limited.
This position, of course, is tied into a developed theology of what Catholics see as a sacrament, the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the ‘power to consecrate the bread and wine’45 is conferred upon the priest. In this example, there is ‘more’ in the ordained Catholic priesthood than one might find in the clergy of other Christian denominations. In Catholicism, Holy Orders is one of the seven sacraments and it is significant to many Catholics that they can identify seven as opposed to the Protestant two, which in some denominations are not even described as sacraments, identified instead as something strangely labeled an ‘ordinance of the church.’46 In Catholicism, marriage is more than a rite. It is a sacrament. Churches are more than some of those Protestant meetinghouses. They are places where you can go in, sit before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in that tabernacle and quietly pray. Mass is ‘more’ than just a service where you will sing hymns and hear a sermon. At Mass, which is actually available in many Catholic churches seven days a week (used to be all, before the priest shortage!), you can get all of those benefits and then even get to receive Jesus too!
It is my firm contention that there is enormous room for healthy and conciliatory dialogue between Protestants and Catholics on these matters. I am firmly convinced that there is significant common ground. As one example, I am quite certain that if you put a committed Catholic married couple in conversation with a Protestant married couple and asked them to talk about their love and their long term relationship, in essence they would be talking about the same thing. Whether it fell on the official list of seven sacraments or not would be far less important than the actual nature of the relationship. Would not both be living out their calling to love God through a committed love to the other person? As a Catholic Permanent Deacon, I officiated at many marriage ceremonies. As a Protestant clergyperson, I have done the same. There is no difference in how I approach the service or the message I deliver from what I said back then in my Catholic days. Some of the language of the Church’s official rite may be different with the Catholic ritual explicitly using the word ‘sacrament’ but the heart and the essence of the matter, in my honest view, is really the same.47 Likewise, some of the most moving and reverential Communion experiences I have had occurred in Protestant worship services. On the other hand, there have been times when I felt an ‘assembly line’ feel to the practice of receiving the little wafer at some Catholic Masses.
In saying this, I am NOT contending that the Catholic approach to Eucharist promotes the assembly line model. In fact, distinguished Catholic liturgists have done magnificent work in helping Catholic presiders at Mass lead worship experiences which are more attentive to the dignity of the Last Supper which the Eucharistic celebration makes present.48
Through these examples I have given and by delving into some of the historical background which explain how these examples have come to be, I have been attempting to express a matter of grave concern: There is an incredible lack of understanding among Catholics and Protestants about who lives in that other ecclesiastical house and about what’s really happening over on that other side of the street . Likewise, there is a dangerous misunderstanding among us about the depth and the breadth of our own traditions, whether they be Protestant or Catholic. We need to move beyond this. We need to get it right so that we can teach it right. We need to teach our church tradition and the broader Christian tradition correctly so that we can pass it along responsibly both to our children and to all who walk through the doors of our respective churches seeking something that will keep their lives grounded and imbued with meaning! We need to get it right so that we can pray and work with other Christians, so that our children can see that their Protestant dad and their Catholic mom really, at the core, share a common faith. We need to get it right so that the words of that hymn we will find both in our Catholic missalettes and our Protestant hymnals will resonate so deeply within us that we can joyfully sing them together:
We are one in the Spirit, We are one in the Lord ...
We will walk with each other, We will walk hand in hand ... and together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love49
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1 Do you agree with the author’s conviction that Protestants and Catholics tend not to understand each other?
2 Do you agree with his assessment that Catholics and Protestants tend not to know the breadth and depth of their own traditions?
3 Did any of his examples compare to any experiences you have had in your relationship with Catholicism and/or Protestantism?
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