Solely affirming the Nicene Creed DOES NOT make one part of His Church.
The user asked how many Holy, Catholic and Apostolic churches I believe in, and the answer to that question is one. I simply disagree with many Roman Catholics on which church that is.
Specifically, rather than believing that that clause refers to the Roman church, with the Orthodox, Lutherans and Anglicans as separated Brethren, I believe the reverse, from a primarily Orthodox position, although Evangelical Catholics and Anglo Catholics are so close to Orthodoxy and Catholicism that the differences are nor worth maintaining a schism over.
I would also note that the position being taken by some Catholics is much more extreme than that taken by the Roman Catholic Church itself. The Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Catholic Churches allows Roman Catholics to receive the Eucharist from us, and vice versa, and I support this provision for intercommunion, and I would note that while most Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions will not provide the Eucharist to Roman Catholics, some Oriental Orthodox will, as will the Assyrians, and I think this is good and reasonable and should be maintained, unless and until the RCC were to change its position on homosexuality, which nearly happened last year with
fiducia supplicans.
Thus, right now, I would have no qualms about partaking of the Eucharist from a Catholic priest, although it would have to be at a mass that had traditional music, since I cannot pray with the distracting noise produced by the praise and worship music that one sometimes encounters (in direct violation of the instruction of Pope St. Pius X concerning Sacred Music,
Tra le Solicitudini , which precludes not only the use of guitars, pianos et cetera but specifically discourages the use even of the more bombastic mass settings of the late Classical and Romantic period, holding up as ideals for liturgical music Gregorian chant and the polyphonic masses of composers such as Palestrina (I believe Byrd is also mentioned, and I would cite Cristobal de Morales as another immensely talented composer of polyphonic sacred music, in particular, his setting of the Office of the Dead, Byrd’s Masses for Three and Five voices, Ave Verum Corpus and his other works from the Gradualia, and Palestrina’s Missa Brevis and Missa Papae Marcelli come to mind as exemplary, as well as some works by Vitoria, and many also like Tallis and Joaquin, i myself like a composer whose name I cannot recall who did a requiem mass for six voices - I am trying to remember his name, and then of course Gregorian Chant is consistently reliable, the most popular setting being the Missa de Angelis, which if i recall is of Franciscan origin, but i like the Gregorian music of the Rorate Caeli Mass in Advent to a particular degree, and the Missa Simplex, and there are if I recall around fifteen settings of the Gregorian Mass, and then of course in Milan one finds the exquisite Ambrosian chant, and in Toledo there are multiple settings of the Mozarabic Mass for use throughout the year which are amazing, and on the Island of Cyprus there are settings of the Latin mass which sound like Byzantine chant and vice versa.
Of course, if something like
Fiducia Supplicans happens again, and is not immediately clarified, but instead blessings of unnatural sexual relationships begin, I will take the side of the Roman Catholics who will immediately sever communion with whoever dares to attempt such a thing. What troubled me about the incident last year is that there were people who were prepared to defend it, downplay it or take the Pope’s side when in the confusion it appeared he was personally responsible for Fiducia Supplicans and had intended for it to authorize such blessings, even where those same people had previously argued that such a change was inconceivable, that Pope Francis would never agree to such a thing, et cetera. These same people have defended the Pachamamba incident,
Amoris Laetitia, and the unwarranted mistreatment of the Traditional Latin Mass community through the suppression of the Pontificial Commission
Ecclesia Dei, which had been established by Pope St. John Paul II, whose canonization Pope Francis had made a point of supporting, as well as
Summorum Pontificum, which was regarded as one of the major accomplishments of Pope Benedict XVI. I would cite the presumably Capuchin friar (although he identifies as a Franciscan, but Capuchins are of course simply discalced Franciscans, or it could be that he is a member of a Franciscan province that wears brown habits rather than grey habits) who hosts the YouTube channel “Breaking In The Habit” as someone who represents the unpleasant liberal aspect of current Roman Catholic clergy.
