A statue of St. Michael the Archangel is seen at the Church of St. Michael in New York City. In response to the church’s abuse crisis, some pastors have asked parishioners to say the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel at the end of Mass. Some bishops have urged all diocesan parishes recite the prayer. (CNS Photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)
By Carol Zimmermann
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON — In response to the church abuse crisis, many parishes around the country have been bringing out the big guns in a spiritual sense — calling on St. Michael the Archangel to help the church.
Some pastors have asked their parishioners to say the prayer at the end of Masses and some bishops have urged all diocesan parishes to recite it. Pope Francis also recently urged Catholics worldwide to recite it after praying the rosary during the month of October.
But for some parishes, saying this prayer at the end of Mass is nothing new.
In 2015, when Father Jose Manuel Campos Garcia was assigned to St. Joseph Parish in Roseburg, Oregon, he started praying the prayer to St. Michael after daily Mass not long after a shooting occurred at the nearby Umpqua Community College that left 10 students dead.
After he began leading the parish in this prayer after daily Mass, he said he saw a change.
“For us, it’s been a journey of healing relationships and healing the community,” he told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon.
And now this parish will be joined by other parishes in the archdiocese in reciting the prayer which calls on the saint to “defend us in battle” and to “be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.”
In a Sept. 14 letter to priests, Portland Archbishop Alexander K. Sample urged them to pray the St. Michael Prayer after each Mass and to encourage parishioners to say this prayer daily.
In his letter, he said the church is in “distressing times with continued revelations about the failures of our brother priests and bishops” and he also said “the evil one has intensified his war” against the church.
The archbishop said there are many things to do to purify the church at this time but that “prayer will also be the foremost and most appropriate response, on which all other efforts will build.”
Father Anthony Ahamefule, administrator of Holy Trinity Parish in Bandon, Oregon, began saying the prayer after Masses in September. He described it as a good spiritual resource.
The priest, who knew the prayer as a child from saying it with his family, feels it will now “bring a sense of healing” by helping Catholics to look to Jesus in trying moments.
“The prayer of St. Michael ties into our eucharistic nature that God is always with us to protect us in challenging times,” he said.
Father Sam Kachuba, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Fairfield, Connecticut, has been leading parishioners in the prayer since Sept. 15, as requested by Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport.
He said many parishioners remember the words fondly from when they were young and others are learning the prayer, following along with printed versions of it in stickers on the back of church hymnals.
The priest told Catholic News Service that parishioners see the prayer as “one part in a multi-part response to the crisis in the church” — the spiritual dimension.
One parishioner who served in the Marine Corps, told the priest he said that prayer every day, and sometimes multiple times a day, during active duty and that saying it now reminds him of what spiritual life requires.
Father Kachuba said he has known the prayer a long time and he thinks saying it together is a beautiful practice. “It never hurts to remind ourselves what is at stake: the devil is seeking our souls every day and God gives us the defense and protection we need if we just avail ourselves of it.”
Bishop Caggiano announced the plan to say this prayer via the modern method of social media. He announced on Twitter Aug. 24 that the prayer would be recited at the end of all Masses in the diocese starting Sept. 15, the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. He also asked that Catholics pray this individually.
Other bishops who have called on Catholics to pray to the intercession of St. Michael at this time of church crisis include: New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan; Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik; Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Kansas City, Kansas; Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee; and Bishop Kevin W. Vann of Orange, California.
Prayer to St. Michael
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of heavenly hosts, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan, and all evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
