Mercy for Heretics and Schismatics?

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We are obliged to pray for the worst sinners — our own salvation depends on it. During Easter Week, Our Lord has asked Catholics to pray specifically for the conversion of "all mankind, especially all sinners."

The novena of Divine Mercy is the approved devotion to do just that. It customarily begins on Good Friday and ends on the Saturday of Easter Week — a day before Divine Mercy Sunday.

The words of the novena were dictated by Our Lord Himself to Sr. Faustina Kowalksa in the late 1930s in Poland — just before World War II. 

Who Needs Prayerful Help?

For each day of the novena, Our Lord has given us different intentions for which we should pray. Priests and religious, devout souls, meek and humble souls, the souls of little children, the souls in Purgatory and the souls of those who venerate God's mercy are all mentioned.

Also mentioned are the souls of the lukewarm, whom Christ describes as being "like corpses" that filled Him "with such deep loathing."

On the fifth day of the novena is the God-given prayer for the souls of those who have separated themselves from Christ's Church — those whom Our Lord, speaking to St. Faustina within the context of her times, called "heretics and schismatics."

"As of the Second Vatican Council, Church authorities have seen fit not to use those designations in accordance with the explanation given in the Council's Decree on Ecumenism," but "[e]very pope since the Council has reaffirmed that usage," The Divine Mercy website explains.

St. Faustina, "her heart always in harmony with the mind of the Church, most certainly would have agreed," the site adds.

The problem is that the prayer for "heretics and schismatics" doesn't specifically refer to the nice Lutherans down the street or the evangelical Protestants.

Our Lord says, "During My bitter Passion they tore at My Body and Heart, that is, My Church. As they return to unity with the Church, My wounds heal and in this way they alleviate My Passion."

The prayer continues, "Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who have separated themselves from Your Church. Draw them by Your light into the unity of the Church."

Churchmen Most in Need?

From the example of priests and bishops from the last 60 years, it is clear this "return to unity with the Church" certainly applies to the Judas-like priests and bishops out there — those who wear the mantle of priestly and apostolic authority but preach their own gospel rather than the gospel Christ gave us.

Despite the very public heterodoxy of Fr. James Martin, Cdl. Blase Cupich and thousands of others out there, Our Lord demands we pray for their return to unity.

Yes, these men will say — just as they say of self-described Catholic Joe Biden — that they are, in fact, Catholic. But by their scandal of calling evil good and good evil, they continue to lead souls astray.

Despite their constant public obstinacy, we must pray for them so that they may not persist in their evil ways but convert to the true teaching of Christ and His Church. It's our obligation to do so because Our Lord said so — it's as simple as that. 

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