@CatholicCulture I just wanna preface this with I affirm fully the Catholic Church and validity of Vatican II, as well as Pope Francis being the true Pope, but have a quick question that someone I know has attacked the Church/Pope over that I find difficult to answer. Namely relating to prayer with non Catholics/non-Chrisrisns. How can we reconcile the prior teachings (to my knowledge) of the Church forbidding praying with non-Christians under pain of automatic excommunication; but Pope Francis has prayed in the blue mosque alongside Muslims. He says this is 1) an act of public Apostasy so 2)the Pope loses his office. Are any of these claims true, as it is being used by those against the Church.
I am unaware of any Church statute saying that praying with non-Christians brings automatic excommunication. To use an obvious example, we pray with non-Christians when catechumens who are not yet baptized come to Mass. So it is more a question of what the context is and what sort of prayer it is. Simply praying "alongside" Muslims (but in your own way) is not the same as praying in a Muslim way or according to the beliefs of Islam. In this case, Pope Francis and the Mufti stood next to each other while both praying silently. It may not be prudent, but it cannot be said, for example, that Pope Francis took part in a Muslim prayer. Certainly it can in no way be considered an act of apostasy, as idolatry would be. Does that help?
@CatholicCulture I just wanna preface this with I affirm fully the Catholic Church and validity of Vatican II, as well as Pope Francis being the true Pope, but have a quick question that someone I know has attacked the Church/Pope over that I find difficult to answer. Namely relating to prayer with non Catholics/non-Chrisrisns. How can we reconcile the prior teachings (to my knowledge) of the Church forbidding praying with non-Christians under pain of automatic excommunication; but Pope Francis has prayed in the blue mosque alongside Muslims. He says this is 1) an act of public Apostasy so 2)the Pope loses his office. Are any of these claims true, as it is being used by those against the Church.
I am unaware of any Church statute saying that praying with non-Christians brings automatic excommunication. To use an obvious example, we pray with non-Christians when catechumens who are not yet baptized come to Mass. So it is more a question of what the context is and what sort of prayer it is. Simply praying "alongside" Muslims (but in your own way) is not the same as praying in a Muslim way or according to the beliefs of Islam. In this case, Pope Francis and the Mufti stood next to each other while both praying silently. It may not be prudent, but it cannot be said, for example, that Pope Francis took part in a Muslim prayer. Certainly it can in no way be considered an act of apostasy, as idolatry would be. Does that help?
I heard that exasperation at the end. Lmao it's pretty obvious.