The TLDR is that my wife and I, as Evangelical/Baptist missionaries, often work with Catholic ministers (priests, nuns, chaplains) in the Philippines. So my answer to the question above is “Yes.”

Now, here is the longer answer.

My wife and I don’t get many questions about why we do certain things and not other things. It does happen occasionally. Usually, we can just explain it, and that is that. Occasionally, it did get us thinking and led us to change things. But one thing that has come up a few times is the fact that we work with Catholics quite often in our primary area of ministry.

Why would this be a problem? Well plenty of Evangelicals see the Catholic church as “the Enemy” or, at best, “the Lost.” There is hundreds of years of animosity. In the Philippines, the Catholic church, through the Philippine colonial government, prevented Protestant mission work up until the end of the 19th century. There are many Catholics, even post-Vatican II, who believe that God’s grace is only available to those within the Roman Catholic church. It is understandable for many Protestants, especially Evangelical Protestants to wonder about working with the Catholics. Their question has sometimes led to more than one occasion, whether that means we work with other groups like Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists, and such.

The obvious difference is that the Roman Catholic church is part of historical Christianity while the others are not. (Mormons do self-identify in recent decades as Christian, even though their beliefs are out of sync with historical churches and creeds. But this is not the post to delve into that.) Many Evangelical groups however, do not see Catholics, however, as Christian… or at least “Christian enough.” I recall decades ago some Evangelical acquaintances talking about how in China (PRC) there are several religions they recognize, two of which are “Catholic” and “Christian.” My friends were sort of verbally “high fiving” the fact that through their choice of religious categories the Chinese assigned Catholics as “not being Christian.” I could not understand why anyone should find any relevance or pride in the labels that the Chinese Communist Party uses.

Of more concern from a missiological standpoint was a website of a major missions group (No, I cannot remember which one). At that site, the Philippines was considered a somewhat unreached country, with only 10% of the population being Christian. Since over 90% self-identify as Christian, how does it come up with 10%? I think they came up with that by labeling every Catholic as non-Christian and every self-described Christian who was not Catholic as being a born-again Christian. Neither of those points made much sense.

The point of the last two paragraphs is simply to note that Evangelicals can get touchy about Catholics. Curiously, it seems like in the Philippines at least, that touchiness does not extend nearly as much the other way. Many Catholics have no problem working with us. Is that universal? No, absolutely not. But it is surprising how often our differences are not seen as a barrier to them. Perhaps this is the fruit of Vatican II, perhaps not.

To explain our situation. We have a pastoral counseling center. We also teach Clinical Pastoral Education. So why do we work with Catholics?

1. Perhaps most importantly, we don’t have much of a choice. Clinical Pastoral Education is most commonly tied to hospital chaplaincy ministry, and so many hospitals are run by the Catholic church. In secular hospitals, the head chaplain is commonly an assigned Roman Catholic priest. To refuse to work with them on any level would be to hamstring our work. We have seen those who did exactly that. They would “sneak” into hospitals and cold call evangelize those in bed. Ignoring the ethical issues of that, it has led to hospitals just rejecting all groups from ministering in the hospital. We had to work hard to enter a secular hospital after other Evangelical groups had “poisoned the watering hole.” Frankly, a lot of these same Catholic chaplains and hospital administrators want to work with us because many of their patients are not Roman Catholic and want to have some way to minister to them.
2. For credentialing, we need to work with Catholics. We are certified and accredited under CPSP-Philippines, the daughter organization of CPSP (College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy). To maintain our status, we must not discriminate against people of other faiths (among other things). That does not mean we cease in our own cherished beliefs or practices. More on that later.
3. We find it helpful to share with them what we do and learn from them in what they do. Interdenominational and interfaith dialogue is very helpful ministerially. It makes us better at what we do.
4. We don’t presume that all Catholics are living in opposition to the will of God. Many do appear to be sincere in their faith in Christ. And frankly, if we presume all Catholics are “unchristian,” we might have to start looking at Christian nationalists in my own denomination, and wonder what that says about my denomination as a whole.

But how do we work together? We work together in things we can work together in. That sounds obvious. In chaplaincy, we can work together easily. I recall one day when my wife and a fellow chaplain were going around a hospital from ward to ward — room to room. A patient asked what church they represented. My wife said that her home church is Baptist and that her colleague was a Catholic nun. That seemed to blow the patient’s mind. But that was kind of the point. My wife and the nun were there serving God and serving the patient, not serving their respective denominations. That is a fairly powerful message.

Our counseling and care center now has two primary places of ministry. One is a secular hospital, partnering with an Evangelical group. The other is a Catholic hospital, partnering with the head (Catholic) chaplain. We have found great benefit in both of those relationships.

Are there things we don’t partner with Catholics (and other groups on). Of course. We would not partner in evangelistic events, or church-planting activities. We would not partner, formally, in discipleship work. Other things like community development projects probably could be done together, but it would take some serious work to establish healthy boundaries. One does have to be careful. In church-planting, we have observed that working with other evangelical groups can lead to such groups trying to take the work from being “non-denominational” to being fully embedded in their own denominational fold. In other words, there is always a risk when working with groups that they may come in with dubious motives. But, as I was suggesting, that is true of any partnership. Partnerships need to always be limited with a clear understanding of the common interests and unique differences that need to be acknowledged and protected.

In missions, there are always barriers. But one must be sure not to create barriers that are not there. I have a friend who served as a missionary for decades in Southeast Asia. He lived with a Buddhist family who actually helped him do his ministry more effectively. Obviously, that help was limited due to their differents in religion/faith. Yet God used that family to help him reach others more effectively. Does that mean partnership with Buddhists in missions is possible? I would argue that if one said yes, that partnership would be far more limited than with Roman Catholics. In the case of my friend, it was support in terms of a place to stay and help with his own logistics in the country. They did not go out and do ministry with him.

“Working with” is such a broad term. We always need to explore what the term means whenever it is used.