Donating To A Protestant Church?

[HisChildForever]

On Saturday, one of the employees at my store was giving out cards. The headline is "Stay At Home Tea" and included is a tea bag. There is an excerpt from one of the Psalms as well. The purpose of the card is asking for donations - this is a Baptist church. "No donation is too large or too small. Please help us to help those in our community in need." And they ask that the check be payable to their church. "Your generous support is appreciated."

I had no intention of donating because I feel that if I have five dollars to spare, it would go towards my home parish. But this sparked a question - does the Church teach that we are not to donate to any Protestant denomination (or any other religion for that matter) because it suggests that we support that denomination? While we should be supporting the Church and donating to Her?

(I really only see this woman on Saturdays and she works in a different department, so it is not an issue of seeing her a lot and thinking 'Oh boy, I feel awkward now...')

[Resurrexi]

Protestant [s]church[/s] ecclesial community.

[HisChildForever]

Sigh, you know what I mean.

[CatherineM]

That's an interesting question. I have donated money to a Baptist church before. Both times were in memory of a family member who had died, and who had been a member of that church. I've also donated to things like CropWalk that is primarily Disciples of Christ, or at least it was in Oklahoma. I can't think of anything in Canon Law about it. That's mostly concerned with how money that the church gets is used, not money that we have and donate elsewhere. There may be an encyclical way back right after the Reformation that deals with it that one of the rad trads will have memorized.

[Brother Vinny]

I don't know what the Church's position on this is, yet, but I wouldn't for the following reasons:

1) For every worthwhile Protestant charitable cause, there's bound to be a Catholic equivalent.
2) You may think your funds are earmarked towards, say, establishing a food bank for the community. However, the expected total might be met and there might be a surplus, and since money is fungible, your donation might be re-allocated to something like their church building fund (who wants another church that looks like a furniture store?) or, even worse, something blatenty anti-Catholic (some Prot denoms support abortion).

Edited May 26, 2009 by Brother Vinny

[loveletslive]

i doubt there's any official church teachings on that...

[Resurrexi]

Here's the answer to your question:

"3. [i][b]Material co-operation,[/b][/i] i.e., concurrence in an action which is only a preparation to a sinful deed, is also wrong as a rule. It may be permitted if the preparatory action is good or at least indifferent, and a correspondingly good reason is had.

The [i]reason[/i] must be greater, in proportion to the gravity of the other's sin, or the more certain is it that the sin will not be committed without one's co-operation or the greater one's obligation to prevent the sin.

148. -- 4. [i][b]Individual cases of co-operation.[/b][/i]

In these cases we take regard only to the sin of co-operation; besides this many thing may be forbidden by reason of the scandal.

a) [i]Co-operation in non-Catholic worship.[/i]

A servant may accompany his master to a Protestant church if doing so will not be interpreted as membership in the sect. To sing or pray along in non-Catholic services is wrong because it is aa participation in an illicit form of worship (cf. 123) -- Sisters in a hospital may not summon an non-Catholic minister for a dying person to assist him in death. For a very weighty reason (e.g., public welfare) they may inform a minister that the patient desires to see him. It seems unlawful even for them to prepare a little table for his use in religious ministrations. -- An architect may design churches for Protestants and synagogues for Jews for some very good reason; a lesser reason justifies the ordinary laborer to work on such buildings. In both cases, however, the supposition is that the heresy has long been practiced unmolested in that particular locality. It is lawful to sell pews, carpets, lights, etc. to non-Catholics for their churches (if otherwise one would loose the profit). -- A greater reason is required to sell works of art to non-Catholic churches since these serve to enhance their divine services and induce others to join the sect or remain in it. The Sacred Penitentiary declared it lawful to give money for the construction of Protestant churches if this will give Catholics the exclusive use of the church they at present share with non-Catholics. Congressmen may vote public funds for the erection of a Protestant church if it be in the interest of religious harmony. So, too, may private individuals for the sake of public peace among religious bodies attend bazaars, concerts, purchase chances, etc. in affairs conducted by Protestants for the building of a church, if the Protestants have extended the same courtesy to Catholics. Ringing the bells in non-Catholic churches, and giving notice of their services in the newspapers is looked upon by many authors as merely indicating the time of their services, and can be justified for any relatively grave reason.

b) [i]Donations for the building and maintenance of non-Catholic schools and orphanages.[/i]

Since the principal purpose of such institutions is instruction and the exercise of charity one may contribute money towards such projects in mixed localities, provided no scandal results therefrom and the institutions will not be used for proselytizing." (Rev. Heribert Jone, O.F.M. Cap., J.C.D. [i]Moral Theology[/i]. Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, 1962. pp. 87 - 88. Imprimatur +John J. Wright, D.D., Bishop of Pittsburgh: December 8, 1961)

Edited May 26, 2009 by Resurrexi

[Brother Vinny]

Res,

You're my hero, now. How do you know so much at 15?

[Guest]

[quote name='Brother Vinny' post='1875360' date='May 25 2009, 10:46 PM']Res,

You're my hero, now. How do you know so much at 15?[/quote]

That's what I'm wondering...

[dUSt]

The Salvation Army is a Protestant church.

[jmjtina]

sometimes they make better BBQ plates.

[CatherineM]

I guess I shouldn't have been selling vestments and clerical shirts to Protestant ministers.

[Spence06]

Erin,

I believe there is no rule against offering charity to any Non-Catholic group that does a good work. All that I've read from the Decree on Ecumenism and also Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, seem to offer a drastically different picture then the quote above from Res.

[puellapaschalis]

For me, I think it would depend what the donation is for. A while back I wondered whether I could send a donation to Ed Young's church (basically I wanted some of his dvds!). Reading through his website, I found the missionary and charitable work he and his people do in parts of Africa. It's laudable work, but includes evangelisation according to the mission statement on his website, which includes the tenet of sola scriptura. So even though I got a lot out of watching his talks, and his organisation does much work in helping people's standard of living, I felt I couldn't donate to him because the evangelical work is - to use a dirty word - tantamount to preaching something that isn't true (I chickened out of using that word!).

Aaaand it also meant I couldn't get the dvds, but ok, that's what we have tv for, right

[ReinnieR]

I personally would like to know specifically what "community in need" it's referring to before donating.

I wouldn't say I would never donate to a protestant church. I would just like to know where my money is going.

When it comes to fund raising in general I would like to know what the funds are being raised for. I certainly would buy popcorn from the Boy Scouts of America but I wouldn't buy Girl Scout cookies because they support planned parenthood.

I've been at a red light and give money to a bum, but I know for a fact that he's really homeless and he's not gonna go and buy drugs with the money I just gave him.

Generally I would donate if I could, I just would like to know where it's going.

Jesus said "when I was hungry did you feed me".... we know what the rest is.