Fr. Don’s Weekly Letter ~ 14 June 2026

Dear Good People of Saint Bernadette,

For many weeks I have been reprinting Pope Leo’s weekly Wednesday General Audience catechesis in Rome “Vatican Council II through its Documents,” a treasure of faith formation for all the world. He wrote in his initial introduction that the Council, whose original participants have nearly all died, needs to be renewed in the hearts of all the faithful, and remembered.

This week’s teaching (on page 10), is particularly beautiful. If we don’t know the Church we celebrate, how can it have meaning in our lives? How can we gather and pray in ignorance? It either becomes a personal devotion, or a cause of indifference.

It is in this spirit that I want to bring up once again the Saint Michael the Archangel prayer at the end of Mass, something that has become a source of division in the Church -- and prayer should never divide.

I remember my parents talking about this at the time of the implementation of the reforms of the Mass at the end of Vatican II. The Saint Michael prayer was no longer a part of the Mass. Technically, it never was, but had become the common practice of the Church since the late 1800s. My parents, who were stern critics of Vatican II (and, the way it was often poorly rolled out without education and formation, many people were), became part of the crowd that would shout the prayer after Mass in protest of the changes. I think it is that memory which haunts me every time it suddenly takes on a life of its own. Some people pray that prayer louder than they pray the responses at Mass.

I’ve written about this before, and was publicly humiliated (at least, that was the intention) of someone in the diocese who has championed traditionalist causes ever since I have been ordained. I won a “millstone award” in one newsletter issue, but accepted it as a badge of courage because the usual target of that award at the time was Pope Francis. Enough with division!

So, I thought I might write about it again.

In 1884, Pope Leo XIII ordered a set of prayers to be recited after “Low Mass” (which was the silent Mass without a choir). Called the Leonine Prayers, they included three Hail Marys, the Hail, Holy Queen (Salve regina), a prayer for freedom of the Church, and an invocation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The prayer to Saint Michael was added in 1886 as the armies of the Vatican (yes, that is right) were losing the Papal States (Lazio-Rome, Marche, Umbria, Romagna and Emilia) to the Italian republic’s Royal Italian Army. Up until then, there were a number of kingdoms and duchies, and the Pope had temporal power over his. Today, the idea of earthly power seems foreign to the papacy, and it should. The Vicar of Christ should not be a king.

When the Papal States were lost, the purpose of the Saint Michael prayer was shifted to various need of the Church, then for the intention of the Roman Catholic Church in Russia, which now comprises about 300 closely-monitored parishes after Soviet persecution, and expatriate Polish and German communities.

The practice ended in 1964 with Vatican II’s instruction Inter oecumenici, which eliminated the Leonine prayers after Mass. It was a custom never incorporated into the official text of the Roman Mass itself, although two or three generations later most thought it was a part of the Mass. They were, rather, devotional prayers that followed the liturgy.

The decision today is left to local custom.

I have never asked that the Saint Michael prayer not be prayed. It is a powerful prayer as a stand-alone devotion and it is always good to ask the saints for their assistance and intercession. It just occurs to me that the end of Mass is a weird time to pray it, because we have just completed the Mass which is Jesus’ total victory over evil, sin, and death. We are literally now embodied in his victory. It seems, in praying it, that we still need to ask for more. Moreso, if we leave the Mass with a spirit of protest, as I witnessed as a child, is that a good thing? Isn’t the Mass about the unity and peace that only Jesus can give?

For that reason I have asked that people wait until the priest leaves the sanctuary after Mass, before people pray the Saint Michael prayer. That way, at least there is a visible separation between the end of the community Mass and private devotion.

The Lord be with you,