Baptist ceremony

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Baptist ceremony in Catholic Church
Question from on 06-26-2007:
Recently I attended a wedding of a friend of mine who is Baptist. Her and her spouse are baptist. The ceremony was a baptist ceremony, presided over by a baptist minister and held in the chapel at a Catholic college. The bride graduated from the college. No Catholic priest was present.

Is this appopriate? Are Protestants allowed to have protestant ceremonies in Catholic Churches and Chapels?

I expressed my concern to a few people and they told me that I was not being very loving to my "seperated bretheren".


Answer by Rev. Mark J. Gantley, JCL on 06-26-2007:
This is possible, according to the Directory for the Application of the Principles and Norms of Ecumenism, #137: "Catholic churches are consecrated or blessed buildings which have an important theological and liturgical significance for the Catholic community. They are therefore generally reserved for Catholic worship. However, if priests, ministers or communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church do not have a place ... for celebrating worthily their religious ceremonies, the diocesan bishop may allow them the use of a church or a Catholic building."

Since it is also the college chapel, a regular arrangement may also have been made to use the chapel as a shared building (#140).

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