Ecumenical Education for Catholic Clergy

Protestant is not Synonymous with "Unchurched" or "heathen.""

I am sometimes completely amazed at the misperceptions and assumptions of catholics, even catholic clergy concerning the religious upbringings of Protestants. Some don't even think we know what the 10 commandments are. This evidences a really intolerable level of bigotry and speaking down to people wrongly assumed to be unchurched.
I am a "cradle Presbyterian" who came to the Catholic church after an Ivy League college education and a top 15 Catholic Law School education. I came after knowing not only the ten commandments, the levitical laws but all those I needed to pass the California Bar on the first try (not everyone does.)
At the point at which I came to the Catholic church I have no doubt I was far far more read in scripture than any lay person in the parish- and everyone I grew up with who was Presbyterian was far far more learned simply by being Presbyterian than any lay catholic of that age.
At the age of around 8, as soon as you can read comfortably basically, all Presbyterians are given their "Third Grade Bible" and they are expected to read it often. Mine was red and came with an inscription from my father. They are expected to develop their personal relationship with God through scripture as soon as they can read. They grow up reading scripture. It becomes part of them.
My grandfather and father were both Deacons of the Presbyterian church. They were in fact "pillars" of the Presbyterian church- one as a significant donor on the Stewardship Committee helped finance an entire new building. He was a Harvard Law graduate and an attorney with a major corporation in Pennsylvania after a big firm experience in New York who worked with the NAACP to create more opportunities in education for African Americans in the Pittsburgh area and nationally in the 1950s, funding scholarships and other opportunities. It has carried on as a family mission of sorts in different manifestations.

Presbyterian churchs typically have a serious strong focus on missions. I have been on short terms missions to the Carribbean several years in a row with a team of medical and educational missionaries.

After reading your Third Grade bible from age 8-12 I was expected to be able to recite the first chapter of John cold. To be confirmed at age 12 I had to demonstrate I knew not only the Apostles Creed and the Our Father but the first chapter of John. I was confirmed in a local Presbyterian church on the Main Line outside Philadelphia. In the beginning was the Word.....And we are expected to stay 'in the word" reading scripture all our lives virtually every day- a practice that I have continued to do all my life (as do most serious "protestant" Christians I know who believe the holy sprit speaks through the words of scripture. This is the "lexio divina' practice now being more forcefully endorced by the Vatican-protestants have been doing it since Martin Luther) It is more Jewish in its respect for the role of scripture in one's relationship with God. In High School I was in regular bible studies. In college -an Ivy League college- I took a new testament scripture class. Divinity school was on my mind. Eventually, I went to Law School, thinking Divinity School was next down the road after some real world legal experience.

So, note to Catholic Pastors- if a Catholic "convert" graces your pews, do not assume they know nothing and have not met Christ. Do not talk down to them, assume they have never read the ten commandments or lack moral integrity. I know it doesn't help when you get people giving testimonials like "I used to be a teenage warewolf slut-monster until I took the Sacraments" but this sort of person is not the rule for someone raised in a conservative Protestant church. Far from it.

It's good to know who your audience is---so your audience doesn't think you are an idiot.
It is not "christian" to treat people poorly. It is just rude and disrespectful.
If you are clergy doing it this is a very bad disgraceful witness and Christ is offended.
Christ knows his children and calls them by name.