Francis J. Connell on Communication with Non-Catholics in Sacred Rites (excerpt) (1944)

 [183] The application of these principles to problems which arise frequently in our land should be familiar to Catholics, particularly to the clergy. In the first place, there is the case of the Catholic who has the chance to earn a few sorely needed dollars by playing the organ or singing in the Protestant church. He is sufficiently grounded in the faith to be safe from the danger of perversion; he will attend Mass faithfully every Sunday before fulfilling his function at the non-Catholic service. Nevertheless, the answer must be an absolute: Non Licet. To sing or to play the organ for a non-Catholic service must be regarded as an active participation in the act of worship, which can never be justified. Such is the practically unanimous teaching of Catholic theologians,[16] corroborated by a decision of the Holy See to the effect that a Catholic might not play the organ at non-Catholic services, even though he needed the money as a means of livelihood.[17] The same principle applies to singing in the choir of a non-Catholic church.

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Footnotes:

16. Cf., for example, Noldin-Schmitt, S.J., Summa Theologiae Moralis (Innsbruck, 1939), II, n. 39; Pruemmer, D., O.P., Manuale Theologia Moralis, (Freiburg Brisg., 1935), I, n. 526; Aertnys-Damen, C.SS.R., Theologia Moralis (Turin, 1939), I, n. 314.

17. S.C. de Prop. Fid., July 8, 1889; Coll. S.C.P.F., n. 1713.

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Source: Francis J. Connell, "Communication with Non-Catholics in Sacred Rites," The American Ecclesiastical Review 140, no. 3 (Sept. 1944): 183.

Communicatio in sacris