I go to a church with a man whose son died on the mainland. The son had been a student for two years at a local Roman Catholic school where his mother worked. I’d never been to a Roman Catholic Church service.They started off with a Hawaiian language song and a hymn followed by eulogies from parents, a friend, and a couple of faculty members. Then they performed a liturgy with a priest.I went to Christian school in 8th grade and studied Reformation history. Luther was portrayed as the good guy. Roman Catholics taught transubstantiation, did let the congregation partake of the cup, and were responsible for all kinds of corruption. Of course, they prayed to Mary, prayed to and for the dead, etc.At the funeral they had a band of ukuleles and other instruments that played hymns using somewhat contemporary arrangements and sang. I knew a couple of hymns, Praise God from Whom All Blessing Flow and they closed with a rendition of Amazing Grace. I didn’t know the rest of the hymns in the liturgy. But I can’t think of anything that was theologically objectionable. Something I really appreciated about the liturgy was that it was very resurrection focused. Jesus died, and they said this young man had been baptized into Christ, and prayed that he would rise again, and believed that he would rise again. The liturgy said that he’d partaken of the body and blood of the Lord, and they prayed that he’d have life, and believed that he would have life.I notice the prayers for the dead were along the lines of …’You promised this to us, Lord. We ask that you’d do as you promised.’ Those weren’t the words. That seemed to be the gist of prayers for the dead. They also prayed that God would do what he promised for all believers. The liturgy was a mix of asking the Lord to do what He said He would, and expressing belief that He would do what He said He would do.The only references to saints I heard was a prayer that we’d be resurrected along with Mary, Joseph, the apostles, and certain other saints.
When called upon to perform a funeral service for a Christian, I always focus on the resurrection and the promise of Heaven and the coming fullness of the Kingdom of God for those who are in Christ.
Freudian slip. Fixed it. But maybe they do that, too, unless they take holy orders________________
The priests said something about the deceased being an angel watching over them and praying for them. I asked him afterwards if the RCC believed the dead became angels. I suspected not. No, they consider them to be another type of created being. I don’t think he made the connection that my question was about his comment during his homily. Most of what he said was good, though. We talked about Hollywood’s depiction of angels in TV shows for a bit.I suspect RCC belief can range to fairly Biblical Christianity to synchretistic idolatry.From watching TV, I got the impression that RCC priests typically said nice-sounding mumbo jumbo that was mostly devoid of Biblical content. But then I realized that TV wrongly portrays Baptists and Pentecostals. Fundamentalists want to beat someone and are out to condemn sinners rather than win them, and Pentecostal characters say really wacky stuff or they make them out to be homicidal. So I figured RCC priests are probably portrayed wrongly, too. Most of the religious mush we hear in films is probably more reflective of the mush in the screen writers and directors’ minds than an accurate representation of any religious group________________
In the area of the country where I pastor, Roman Catholicism is the majority religion by a huge margin. We regularly have kids we bus in on our church bus route who are from a Roman Catholic background or culture at least. I am often asked by some of these beautiful children if I would please pray for their grandfather or grandmother who died. I take it as an opportunity to tell them it does no good to pray for someone who has died, that we should always pray for people
suffice it to say that to be absent from the body is to be in the Presence of the Lord. We are NOT waiting in some soul sleep or limbo place waiting for the return of Jesus in order to be resurrected when we die.In addition, Catholicism is a religion of works, and they have NO concept of making it to heaven unless their families pay for masses to perhaps pray them into heaven, maybe. In addition, each time they perform a mass with the eucharist they are crucifying Christ again. So, thousands of times a day Jesus is dying again ( symbolically ) for our sins. And yet, as we know from Hebrews He died once, forever, for our transgressions and then sat down. It is finished.I too pastored in a Catholic area (NE ohio) and some of the most vocal anti catholics were former catholics who were angry at the lies they had been told.