Priest advises that we can pray to Mother Angelica, asking her for prayers, though she has not yet been canonized

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This appeared in a priest’s answer column in CatholicPhilly on April 28, at Yes, you can pray to Mother Angelica – Catholic Philly
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Q. I have always had great admiration for Mother Angelica. Would it be wrong of me to talk to her and ask her prayers if she has not yet been declared “blessed” by the church? (Phoenix)

A. Mother Angelica died in 2016 at the age of 92. In 1981, she founded the Eternal Word Television Network and turned it into a vast religious media operation, which today transmits programs to more than 200 million homes in nearly 150 countries.

At her death, Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, then-president of the U.S. bishops’ conference, praised Mother Angelica for spreading the Gospel of Jesus, saying that “like the best evangelists, she used the communications tools of her time to make this happen.”

There are many who share our writer’s confidence that Mother Angelica is now enjoying the peace of God’s presence; in fact, just three days after her death Pope Francis spoke to members of the EWTN staff in Rome and, pointing to the sky, said of Mother Angelica, “She is in heaven.”

So as to whether it’s OK for you to ask her prayers, I’d say that the answer is a resounding “Yes.” It strikes me, too, that if you could only pray to canonized saints, there might never be any saints — since it takes miracles, gained through the prayers of the faithful, for canonization to occur.

The vast majority of those who make it into heaven will never, of course, be formally canonized by the church; but there are people we have all known — including family members — who have lived good lives and who, we are quite sure, now enjoy the company of the Lord in heaven.

I think about some of these people often, talk with them and pray for their help. But to be on the safe side, I continue to pray “for” them as well as “to” them — just in case they still need a boost!
 
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I’m glad the priest clarified that although I didn’t really need him to. I have figured she was a saint since the day she died, on Easter, and I am sure her official cause will be opening right after the fifth anniversary of her death. Mother wouldn’t want, nor would her postulators want, to ask for an exception to open it earlier than the norm. In the meantime, the more people who pray to her the better, as it will help her cause.

I also believe her cause for sainthood will rocket through as fast as St. Josemaria Escriva’s did.
 
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What Glennon said. You can pray to anyone. I pray all the time to my deceased relatives, for example. Remember that whether in heaven or purgatory, souls are happy to pray for us.
 
Glennon_P said:
You can pray for her intercession just like you can pray for anyone’s intercession. She’s no different than anyone else.
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One caveat: We should have a reasonable expectation that the person is in Heaven in order to pray to them.
This is of course a very subjective judgment. But let’s just say I would be likely to pray TO Mother Angelica, and more likely to pray FOR Stalin.
Of course, if I prayed FOR Stalin and he somehow made it to heaven or was already there, he would return the favor by praying for me, so it would all come out even.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
One caveat: We should have a reasonable expectation that the person is in Heaven in order to pray to them.
This is of course a very subjective judgment. But let’s just say I would be likely to pray TO Mother Angelica, and more likely to pray FOR Stalin.
Of course, if I prayed FOR Stalin and he somehow made it to heaven or was already there, he would return the favor by praying for me, so it would all come out even.
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That’s fair.
 
Glennon_P said:
You can pray for her intercession just like you can pray for anyone’s intercession. She’s no different than anyone else.
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Really it’s pretty much a prerequisite that some people have prayed for a non-canonized person’s intercession as part of the process of canonization. When they are looking at miracles attributed to a saint it would be a process of saying “living person X prayed for the intercession of deceased Y for Z.” If Z were to happen and is a miraculous event, then it would follow that Y is in heaven and therefore part of the Church Triumphant.

Given that, it would seem that if no one prayed for intercession until someone was canonized then miracles could never be attributed to their intercession and only martyrs would be recognized as saints.
 
I think maybe the confusion about Mother Angelica is that she doesn’t have an official sainthood cause yet. Most people aren’t knowledgeable enough about the process for sainthood to know that normally there’s a 5-year waiting period before the process can even be started. Of course, I also suspect that these types of articles may be “planted” by those preparing for her cause to be opened next year as it will be 5 years as of March 27, 2021. Best to start getting people all fired up about her sainthood cause now so they can have a big groundswell of support. I know I’ve already been on board for a few years now. I have seen how the Masses relating to the cause of Mother’s relatively unknown mentor Rhoda Wise pack the church, and I am sure that Mother Angelica’s cause will draw crowds of Fulton Sheen proportions.
 
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Is it wrong that these conversations always remind me of “Father” Guido Sarducci’s discussion of the Church’s process for canonizing saints?
 
There is nothing wrong with Fr. Guido Sarducci. I love Fr. Guido. He reminds me of an updated Don Camillo. Not in the anti-Communist aspect, rather the gentle satire aspect.
 
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And, if her years of suffering in silence did not constitute her purgatory on earth, the one on the way to heaven will be but an eye blink.

As well, no prayer is ever wasted, even if the recipient is in hell. Where a door is closed, God always opens a window. The angels and elders, Saint Raphael the Archangel in particular, bears our prayers to the Throne of the Most High.
 
I understand that there is some controversy on whether or not the souls in Purgatory can pray for us (of course, we know we can pray for them) but I for one strongly believe they can and do pray for us. They need to practice charity, as we all do – we are all bound together in charity – and thus they pray for our needs as God allows them to know those needs. But as po18guy states, no prayer is ever wasted: God will use it for our benefit and the benefit of others, no matter what, so the answer is: just go ahead and pray for and to anyone you want!
 
The Church has not definitively spoken to that issue. Some priests teach that the souls in purgatory can pray for us from purgatory. Some others teach that the souls in purgatory cannot pray for us until they get to heaven. I tend to believe the latter (they can’t pray for us till they reach Heaven), but your belief is also permitted by the Church.

Since God, heaven, and purgatory are outside time, it doesn’t really matter. If I pray for a soul in purgatory, then prayers they make for me can be applied right now regardless of whether they are making the prayer now (either from purgatory or heaven) or making the prayer 1000 earthly years from now (when they get to heaven). Which is good, because I need prayers right now obviously.
 
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Yes, as I said they can pray for us. The Church has not definitely said “when” they can pray for us, and as I explained, they are outside time so it is a moot point in terms of ourselves receiving the benefits of the prayers, and priests and sources differ on this teaching, and you are allowed to believe what you believe and I am allowed to believe what I believe.

Edited to add, here is a source from Ascension Press in support of both beliefs being okay because the Church has not definitively pronounced on this. In pertinent part, it says,
The Church has not ruled definitively on this matter. The faithful are allowed to have differing opinions one way or the other.
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It goes on to describe the differing opinions of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Robert Bellarmine, and St. Padre Pio on the matter.

 
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Tis_Bearself said:
Of course, if I prayed FOR Stalin and he somehow made it to heaven or was already there, he would return the favor by praying for me, so it would all come out even.
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Stalin once mocked Pope Pius XII by asking “How many [armored] divisions does the Pope have?” When the Pope heard that he replied: “Tell my son Joseph that he will meet my divisions one day.”

On his deathbed, Stalin was very weak, then suddenly he sat up, shook his fist at someone the rest of his aides could not see, collapsed and died.
 
Let us hope he was shaking his fist at the Devil.

Stalin had a wife he loved when he was young, and he grieved her passing greatly. He had some humanity. I hope he was saved just like I hope everyone is saved, even the animal abusers who I have a harder time praying for than Stalin or Hitler or serial killers to be honest.
 
Public prayers to a person not yet declared are not appropriate. Private prayer is fine.
 
Its confusing because we can ask our neighbors to pray for us.
For the departed its different.

Not Mother Angelica, but to ask a departed soul to pray for us is assuming where they are and assuming the state of thier souls at death.
 
Katie777 said:
Not Mother Angelica, but to ask a departed soul to pray for us is assuming where they are and assuming the state of thier souls at death.
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The Church permits us to ask any departed soul that we have reason to believe is in Heaven to pray for us.

I regularly ask my deceased parents, in-laws, husband, grandmother, a couple other relatives to whom I felt close, and a handful of friends to pray for me. I reasonably think they are all in Heaven. One reason I reasonably think this is that I have had Gregorian Masses said for most of them, and of course I pray for them all the time. I have other reasons to reasonably think this in several cases that are not forum fodder.

If somehow one or more of them are not in a position to pray for me, I’m sure God will redirect the request, however I have confidence in God to save my loved ones.
 
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