Crossing the Street. Robert R LaRochelle
I was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church, a penalty about which I had been warned when I notified my Catholic Archbishop’s office at the time of my departure.12 The word excommunication is a scary one to many of us raised as Catholics. It is also a word terribly misused and misunderstood. As a matter of fact, it is a sad reality that there are a lot of Catholics living day to day and thinking they are excommunicated when in fact they are not.13 In my case, I most assuredly am. I often like to tell people that I had made my intentions known to the Archbishop’s office that I was considering leaving the Catholic Church. I then received a letter saying, in essence, that if I did that, I wouldn’t be a Catholic any more. I made that decision; hence, the automatic excommunication. The next few months and years in my spiritual journey led me to where I am today, joyfully serving as a minister in the United Church of Christ.
As I have said, this is the brief sketch. Later on in the book, I will do my best to describe the relevance of my own personal journey to the central thrust of this book. Suffice it to say for now that my experience as a clergyman, in the UCC, coupled with my deeply rooted Catholic upbringing and experience as a clergyman there, has strengthened my conviction that Catholics and Protestants really need to work together and to take the time to more completely understand each other. Not only that, but they must also make the effort to come to a fuller appreciation of themselves, their history, the theologies operative within their traditions and the pluralism of their own churches’ practices that so often catch them as a considerable surprise!
It is my hope that Chapter One will make my intentions clear and that this book’s title will become self explanatory as well. In this chapter, I explore in great detail what it means to ‘live within one’s own house,’ of either Catholic or Protestant tradition. I seek to lay out the misunderstandings we so often have of the ‘other’ and argue against a monolithic reading either of one’s own or of another religious tradition. Chapter Two, entitled,‘So, What’s the Difference?’, attempts to clarify the significant distinguishing characteristics of Catholicism and Protestantism.
Chapter Three serves as the ‘bridge chapter’ of this book as I attempt to connect the many details of my own long religious journey (It gets long when one gets old!!) with the central issues we are examining in this book. In Chapter Four, through the use of research data, interviews and significant written material, I go into greater detail regarding the diversity of both Catholicism and Protestantism. Utilizing significant insights from the work of several writers, I encourage us to consider both Catholic and Protestant ‘imaginations’ and ‘instincts.’
Chapters Five and Six are dedicated to acknowledging and affirming the spiritual gifts that Catholics and Protestants have to offer each other. These chapters lay the foundation for the central point for which I argue in Chapter Seven i.e. that there is an ‘ecumenical center’ within Catholicism and Protestantism, a center that must be nourished and nurtured, for the sake of the message of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus our common Christ!
Chapter Eight moves into specific practical strategies that can be employed on the personal level, within local churches and in broader institutional settings, as well as in more informal ways. Following this pragmatic exploration, my concluding chapter, entitled ‘It Is Time To Cross The Street,’ reiterates the case for the crucial significance of the entire enterprise advocated in this book!
As I will repeat in other places, it is my intention that this book will be a resource for discussion among individuals and within churches. Likewise, I would love to hear from you, the readers of this work.14 I want to know how it connects with your own personal experience as Protestants and Catholics and, for you, who have not been raised in either tradition, I would be greatly interested in whether you see it as helpful in explaining and perhaps helping to bridge what is arguably one of Christianity’s truly ‘great divides.’
Before we move on, a final disclaimer or perhaps set of disclaimers is in order: In offering this material to you, I make the unashamed, unabashed claim that I present myself to you as one who freely stands in the tradition of the Reformation. In other words, I call myself a Protestant. In doing so, I am not suggesting to the reader, as I say earlier in this introduction, that if you are not currently a Protestant, then perhaps you should become one too. While I have freely chosen to leave the Catholic Church in which I was raised and now worship and serve within the Protestant expression of Christianity, it is not my intention to proselytize other Catholics into becoming Protestants. As a matter of fact, in my work as a Protestant clergyperson, there have been several times when I have counseled Catholics, angry with or feeling alienated from their church, that they do not appear to be ready to make the move out of their church and thus they should not, at least not at this time!
Nor am I interested in stopping a Protestant ‘migration’ to Catholicism. Instead, I am firmly convinced that, with respect to church affiliation, as with all important things, it is necessary that one make honest, intelligent decisions utilizing one’s conscience to the fullest extent. Believing with Paul that ‘now we see dimly as in a mirror,’15 I am likewise quite cognizant of the limitations of our own knowledge while equally confident that God has bestowed upon us the capacity to make individual decisions and judgments in the depths of our souls and respectful of the primacy of our consciences. Quite honestly, I am convinced that this belief is an integral aspect of both mainline Protestantism and the Roman Catholic tradition and is one of those areas commonly misunderstood both from outside each tradition as well as from within.16
Finally, though I will say it throughout this book, it is important that I state upfront that even in describing ‘mainline’ Protestantism in relation to the Catholic faith, one must realize that different Protestant traditions appear less closely aligned with the Catholic expression of faith. My college age son, for example, has indicated to me that on his collegiate campus, it is not unusual to see midwestern Lutherans attend Catholic Mass rather than the Protestant chapel service each Sunday. One could legitimately speculate that those Lutherans may have a comfort level with the liturgical approach of the Catholic worship experience and would perceive it as more closely aligned ritually with the Lutheran worship services they have experienced in their home congregations. Conversely, the person raised in a New England Congregational tradition might see and perceive the Catholic expression of worship differently. This reality should not lead one to conclude that the Lutheran student cited here is any less Protestant than the New England Congregationalist. In fact, he or she might have significant differences with Catholic teaching on a number of major issues and may be very comfortable identifying himself or herself as a Protestant. It is to say, however, that in looking at Protestantism, one must acknowledge the variety of expressions therein and, quite importantly, proceed to explore the points of potential ecumenical consensus.
All of this renders crucial the need for heightened theological education on the local level within all Christian churches. This would include good education concerning both one’s own tradition and one’s tradition in relation to others. This serves as a necessary antidote to a religious indifferentism that, while appearing to be open minded and ecumenical, is really not very helpful at all. It is my strong conviction that it is unfair to contend that there are ‘really no differences between Episcopalians (or Presbyterians or insert any other denomination here!!) and Roman Catholics.’ Stating that is, first of all, not true and, secondly, serves as a real impediment to the kind of necessary dialogue of which I will speak in this book. To the contrary, I strongly believe that pastors and educators, both Protestant and Catholic, have an obligation to teach their members the fullness of their own theological traditions and histories. By fullness, I mean that one also must include an exposure to the discussions, developments and dissensions found within their churches.
It is in this context that I wish to explain the footnotes you will find throughout this book. As I make specific points about certain churches and denominations, those readers familiar with the facts I explain may find my comments rather elementary and perhaps even redundant. It is important that you understand my motivation for presenting these factual notations. I want the reader to have a solid grasp of some relevant factual information that is necessary for us to engage in informed dialogue involving those individuals of varied religious traditions.
Too much local denominational education has been,