protestant question

[Fearful 1]

a person who considers themselves a protestant claims that her father was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for teaching salvation by faith alone in a Catholic highschool in the U.S. When asked if he was excommunicated by the Vatican she said she was not certain and didnt feel comfortable asking him. I am doubtful of the validity of this claim and am wondering if it is more likely the case that he may simply have been removed from his teaching position. I am curious if anyone here could comment on how likely it might be that her claim is actually true. She wants to know if Catholics can fellowship with Christians who have left the Catholic Church and embraced Protestantism. She wants to know if it is taught that such people are condemned by the Roman Catholic Church to hell. I would appreciate your comments on the matter.

[urbo42]

My answer would be that although the difference in faiths, we are still Christians. We can pray and hopefully lead them home to the Catholic Church and I would encourage any relationship with a person from another denomination. An excommunication renders that person unable to receive the Eucharist, because of not following the truth within the Church. Once that person renounces what they have done, that person can then be received into full communion again. Only God can condemn a person's soul to hell.

[philothea]

[quote name='Fearful 1' date='Oct 2 2005, 09:49 PM']a person who considers themselves a protestant claims that her father was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church for teaching salvation by faith alone in a Catholic highschool in the U.S.  When asked if he was excommunicated by the Vatican she said she was not certain and didnt feel comfortable asking him. I am doubtful of the validity of this claim and am wondering if it is more likely the case that he may simply have been removed from his teaching position.  I am curious if anyone here could comment on how likely it might be that her claim is actually true.  She wants to know if Catholics can fellowship with Christians who have left the Catholic Church and embraced Protestantism.  She wants to know if it is taught that such people are condemned by the Roman Catholic Church to hell.  I would appreciate your comments on the matter.
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Unless her father was a prominet dissident theologian, I don't think it's at all likely that he was formally excommunicated. You are probably right to guess he was simply fired. (And that's rare enough in itself nowadays... sigh.)

As for your second question, here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
[quote] In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame."The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin:

    [i]Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.[/i]

"However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."

"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him, and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."
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(Full text of this section [url="http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p3.htm"]here[/url].)

[Twentie Fow]

Aren't Christians who leave the Catholic Church and embrace Protestantism true Heretics just like Martin Luther? Is not heresy a mortal sin which can exclude one from Heaven if the sin is not brought to Sacramental Confession?

[journeyman]

there are some offenses for which a formal excommunication is not required . . . depending on what he did (ordain women?- or consecrate bishops without papal consent?), the excommunication may have been automatic