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A cross is seen on the facade of a United Methodist Church in Prescott, Ariz., May 3, 2024. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)

Question Corner: Can I go to a Methodist church since there are no Catholic churches nearby?

May 8, 2024
By Jenna Marie Cooper
OSV News
Filed Under: Commentary, Question Corner

Q: I recently moved to a rural area, and my current parish is now nearly an hour drive away. There are no Catholic churches in my new area. There is, however, a Methodist church right across the street from my new home, in easy walking distance. They are open for services on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. I know the two faiths are different in some key areas, but, as a Catholic, how wrong would I be if I simply went to this Methodist church? I asked a cradle Catholic friend about this, and they said as long as I go to Catholic Mass once a year, I’ll be considered active in the Catholic faith, but if I miss over a year I’ll be considered a “lapsed Catholic,” and that if I ever want to come back I’ll be considered a “revert,” and have to go through RCIA again. Could you comment and clarify? (Southern Indiana)

A: There are several questions within your question. To start with the first one: It is not wrong or sinful for a Catholic simply to attend a non-Catholic religious service. However, a Methodist Sunday service would not fulfill the Sunday obligation for a Catholic.

Deliberately missing Sunday Mass is in itself “grave matter” and a serious sin that should be brought to the sacrament of penance. Still, it’s good to recall that the church’s law does not bind us to do the impossible. The sinfulness of your personally potentially missing Sunday Mass in your own situation might be diminished due to mitigating factors.

Regarding the idea that a Catholic only needs to attend Mass once a year to remain “active,” I think your friend might be a little confused. As noted above, Catholics are required to attend Mass every Sunday. But strictly speaking, a Catholic is only required to receive Holy Communion once per year (after the sacrament of penance if the Catholic is conscious of having committed a mortal sin in the past year). Among Catholics this is sometimes colloquially referred to as the “Easter duty.”

Naturally, we as Catholics are encouraged to go to confession and receive Holy Communion much more often than once a year! But if a Catholic for whatever reason discerns that he or she is not spiritually prepared to receive the Eucharist on a weekly basis, it is legitimate for him or her to fulfill the Sunday obligation by attending Mass without receiving Communion, as long as they receive Communion at least once during each Easter season.

While we might popularly use the term “active Catholic” to describe a Catholic who takes their faith seriously, technically “active Catholic” is not a category in canon law. Canon law does have some specific penalties such as excommunication that might restrict a Catholic from fully participating in the life of the church; and canon 916 reminds us that a Catholic should not receive Communion if they are conscious of having committed a serious sin that has not yet been absolved.

But once someone is baptized Catholic or formally received into the Catholic Church, they are always considered Catholic, even if they fall away from the faith or fail to practice it regularly. Nothing — not even neglecting the Sunday obligation — can “de-activate” a person’s identity as a Catholic.

Because of this, a lapsed Catholic who wanted to return to a full practice of the faith would not be eligible for RCIA, that is, the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. RCIA is primarily intended for catechumens, or unbaptized persons who are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation. As such, RCIA would not be appropriate for a Catholic who has already been fully initiated. In the majority of situations, all a lapsed Catholic would need to do to return to a full participation in the life of the church is sincerely repent and make a good confession.

Read More Question Corner

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Question Corner: When can Catholics sing the Advent hymn ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel?’

Jenna Marie Cooper

December 10, 2025

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The church does not have any explicit rule about when the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” can be sung. In principle, it’s perfectly allowed to sing this throughout Advent. However, I think I can guess why your choir director wants to hold off on using this hymn until later in the season.

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Continue Reading Question Corner: When can Catholics sing the Advent hymn ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel?’

Question Corner: Do Catholics give things up for Advent?

Jenna Marie Cooper

December 3, 2025

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Catholics aren’t required to “give anything up” for Advent. And even while the practice of taking on an additional, personal Lenten penance is a well-established and praiseworthy custom, Catholics technically aren’t required to do anything extra for Lent beyond the usual fasting and abstinence from meat (see Canon 1251 of the Code of Canon Law).

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Continue Reading Question Corner: Do Catholics give things up for Advent?

Question Corner: Is it a sin if someone calls Mary ‘co-redemptrix?’

Jenna Marie Cooper

November 26, 2025

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A Catholic who stubbornly refused to accept the church’s teaching in “Mater Populi Fidelis” and continued to refer to Mary as “co-redemptrix” out of a willful disregard for the pope’s authority likely would be sinning.

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Continue Reading Question Corner: Is it a sin if someone calls Mary ‘co-redemptrix?’

Question Corner: Why does the church still have indulgences?

Jenna Marie Cooper

November 19, 2025

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Those of us still on earth can actively strive for a deeper sense of conversion and detachment from sin, but the souls in purgatory can no longer help themselves in this way and are dependent on our prayers and penances.

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Continue Reading Question Corner: Why does the church still have indulgences?

Question Corner: How many vocations are there?

Jenna Marie Cooper

November 6, 2025

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It’s important to keep in mind that the concept of “vocation” is ultimately not about sorting ourselves or others into boxes, but rather is about discerning and embracing God’s will for us in our own unique life situation — whether or not that fits tidily into one of the above-mentioned categories.

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Question Corner: What do we mean when we talk about reducing specific amounts of time in purgatory?

Jenna Marie Cooper

October 29, 2025

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Purgatory is indeed a state that exists apart from the linear time we experience in our lives on earth, and therefore we cannot truly speak about how long a soul spends in purgatory according to a literal measure of days, months or years.

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