Catholic churches from Philadelphia to Miami and from Spokane to Dallas have confirmed to LifeSiteNews that they will not have a Mass offered for Trump, with the most common explanation being that they cannot get involved in anything political due to their tax-exempt status.
These churches frequently refused to offer a Mass for Trump even with the understanding that such a Mass would be requested for his soul and not his campaign. Church staffers sometimes clarified that they would not offer a Mass for any political candidate.
Devout Catholic Shannon Haase told LifeSiteNews how in the Diocese of San Antonio a friend of hers attempted to submit a Mass request for the “protection and heavenly guidance of Donald Trump” but was refused and was told by her parish that they could not pray for Trump by name but could pray only for the “election” in general.
“Tax exempt status is more important than a soul?” Haase later asked the parish representative to a response of silence, she told LifeSiteNews.
Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute commented to LifeSiteNews that “offering a Mass for the good of a person – whether a politician running for office or not – cannot be construed as a political act because the Mass is not a political prayer.”
“The offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the offering of the infinite good of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary to God the Father — and when the good of a soul is intended along with that sacrifice, it is no different than the prayer of the Good Thief who died beside Our Lord: ‘remember me when you enter into Your kingdom,’” Hichborn said.
Representatives of the Dioceses of Santa Fe, New Mexico and Dallas, Texas confirmed to LifeSiteNews that their official policies of not allowing public Mass intentions for political candidates are based on U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) guidelines. The USCCB states in its “Do’s and Don’ts Guide for Election Season”: “Do not endorse or oppose candidates, political parties, or groups of candidates, or take any action that reasonably could be construed as endorsement or opposition.”
The Diocese of Dallas further explained to LifeSiteNews that they permit priests to offer Masses for a political candidate as a “private intention, but only if it’s unannounced during the Mass,” and if it’s “not for them to win the election or that they will have a change of heart.”
A representative of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida suggested that they could not offer a Mass for a specific political candidate, because doing so would “impl(y) that we are supporting one candidate or another.” Instead, they would be able to “offer Masses for political leaders in general.”
Catholics for Catholics CEO John Yep has pointed out that the freedom to offer a Mass for anyone is explicitly afforded in canon law. Can. 901 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that “A priest is free to apply the Mass for anyone, living or dead.”
Yep has helped launch his organization’s “Holy Masses for President Trump Campaign,” which began June 14, Trump’s birthday, and is slated for wrap-up on Election Day, November 5. The campaign has been extremely successful so far despite the policies of many dioceses: Priests have already committed to or offered a total of 1,013 Masses for Trump, Yep told LifeSiteNews.
According to Yep, about 20 percent of their Mass requests have been denied due generally to their refusal to “get involved in politics.” It is unknown how many of the successful Mass offerings for Trump were private intentions, second or third attempts for Mass offerings, etc.
Yep explained on NewsMax amid the launch of their Mass campaign, “We’re praying right now that Donald Trump is representing us against this invasion of atheistic communism, that he has the courage and the prayers he needs to win this battle.”
Catholics for Catholics has noted that the power of the Mass for a soul is more powerful than any other prayer: “The Church considers the Mass the greatest possible prayer of intercession because it is the perfect offering of Christ to the Father,” the group’s website states.
Yep highlighted to LifeSiteNews the “irony” of the Catholic churches’ refusal to acknowledge how party stances “reflect or don’t reflect Catholic doctrine” even as they clearly take a stand on state ballot measures, such as Florida’s Amendment 4, which would require abortion to be allowed for any reason before fetal “viability” and render post-“viability” bans effectively meaningless by exempting any abortion that an abortionist claims is for “health” reasons.