ONE WORLD RELIGION WATCH: Lutherans, Catholics urged to keeping finding ways to pray together
Praying with heretics is grounds for automatic excommunication (before evil Vatican II)
"We have to keep finding ways to respect each other and pray with each other," Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, said. "We need to continue moving forward and strengthening our relationships with each other so we can work together in deeper faith." The bishop was speaking at a joint service with Lutherans to mark the Reformation's 500th anniversary.
A Catholic bishop and a Lutheran bishop told members of both their
denominations gathered to mark the Reformation’s 500th anniversary that
they need to keep finding ways to respect one another, pray together and
cross “these bridges between us.”
Lutherans and Catholics came together for a joint prayer service in
Columbia which had as its theme “From Conflict to Communion: Together in
Hope.”Members of both denominations sang and prayed together Sept. 17 in Christ Chapel at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, their faces at times bathed in rainbow light from the chapel’s dramatic stained-glass windows.
Leading the service were Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of the Catholic Diocese of Charleston and Bishop Herman R. Yoos III of the South Carolina Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
The bishops offered a joint sermon full of personal reflections about how each had come to understand the other’s beliefs.
Guglielmone recalled growing up in a small town on Long Island, New York, where members of the two faiths frequently worked together on social projects, but never prayed together. Yoos recalled dating a Catholic woman during his college years, then gained more knowledge about the Catholic Church from a priest who welcomed him at the local parish.
Both leaders said they were thankful for greater understanding and more focus on ecumenical outreach in recent years.
“We have to keep finding ways to respect each other and pray with each other,” Guglielmone said. “We need to continue moving forward and strengthening our relationships with each other so we can work together in deeper faith.”
Yoos reflected on Pope Francis’s meeting with Lutheran leaders in Europe in October 2016, when he committed to a greater effort of understanding.
He compared Catholics and Lutherans who make no effort to interact to a bridge that people on both sides admire but never use.
“If we stay isolated in our own parishes, we are not doing anything to share the Gospel,” he said. “We need to begin crossing these bridges between us, and celebrate the unity we have in Jesus Christ.”
Members of both denominations came forward to light candles in a candelabra designed by North Carolina potters. Five candles represented “imperatives” that attendees committed to pursue to deepen fellowship.
Jeannie and Marshall Hurlbert, of Columbia, lit one of the candles. Afterward, they said they appreciated participating because their marriage is a genuine example of communion. He is Lutheran and she is Catholic. She is a member of St. John Neumann Church in Columbia and he belongs to Living Springs Lutheran Church.
They raised their two daughters with exposure to both traditions. After attending Catholic and Lutheran religious education, both girls decided they wanted to be confirmed as Catholics. That was fine with the Hurlberts, who said they are just happy they can share their love of God with others.
See for yourself:
The Church's Constant Teaching on our dealings with Non-Catholics
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/ecumenism/noncath.htm
PRAYER WITH NON-CATHOLICS FORBIDDEN
Are heretics and schismatics excommunicated? Yes; they have
no part in the Communion of the Saints. Catechism of the Summa
If any ecclesiastic or layman shall go into the synagogue of
the Jews or to the meeting-houses of the heretics to join in prayer with them,
let them be deposed and deprived of communion. If any bishop or priest or deacon
shall join in prayer with heretics, let him be suspended from communion. II
Council of Constantinople
That Christians and ecclesiastics should pray for Christian
unity under the direction of heretics and, what is worse, according to an
intention which is radically impregnated and vitiated with heresy, is absolutely
impossible to tolerate! Ven. Pope Pius XI
One must neither pray nor sing psalms with heretics, and
whoever shall communicate with those who are cut off from the communion of the
Church, whether clergy or layman: let him be excommunicated. Council of
Carthage
No one shall pray in common with heretics and schismatics.
Council of Laodicea
Since you are not of my religion, I ought not to join in
prayer with you; but I will pray heartily for you: that God would enlighten you,
bring you back to His Church, and dispose you for His mercy. Ven. Henry
Walpole
I will not pray with you, nor shall you pray with me; neither
will I say "Amen" to your prayers, nor shall you to mine! St. Margaret
Clitherow
I refuse to pray with you, but I desire all Catholics to pray
for me, and I mean Catholics of the Catholic Roman Church. Ven. George
Haydock
We decree that those who give credence to the teachings of
the heretics, as well as those who receive, defend or patronize them, are
excommunicated. [...] If anyone refuses to avoid such accomplices after they
have been ostracized by the Church, let them also be excommunicated. IV
Lateran Council
