Who are the Waldensians? Is it possible to enter into relations with them?
Also known as “the Poor of Lyon”; they are a small Christian sect that currently has about 20,000 members, and its main center is in Italian Piedmont. They were founded by Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant of Lyon who, around 1173, donated his possessions and became an itinerant preacher. Waldo preached against the laxity of the clergy and against the Cathar heresy. Pope Alexander III allowed him to preach only in the regions where he was accepted by the local clergy. The Pope’s condition was not always respected, and despite their complete orthodoxy they were excommunicated together with the Cathars at the Council of Verona (1184). Subsequently they began to organize themselves outside the Church, spreading from southern France toward Spain, Germany, Piedmont and Lombardy, especially among the lower classes. Their growing heterodoxy (especially concerning: the number and nature of the sacraments, the invalidity of sacraments administered by unworthy clerics, the rejection of purgatory and of devotion to the saints, and their rejection of oaths) made them the object of persecution both by the Church and by the secular powers. Since theirs was an early “Protestantism,” it led them to come into contact with the movements of the Reformation in the 16th century. With their adoption of a formal Confession of Faith and their repudiation of the Catholic Church at the Synod of Chanforan (1532), the Waldensians effectively became a Reformed Protestant sect. In 1848 the Waldensian community of Piedmont obtained religious freedom from Duke Charles Albert of Savoy.
The relationship of Catholics with the Waldensians is like the relationship Catholics may have with any other non-Catholic: respect and tolerance, but at the same time firmness in one’s own faith.
Source: El Teólogo Responde
Author: Fr. Miguel Ángel Fuentes, I.V.E.
