Can I have a Mass said for a non-Catholic or an unbeliever?

Current norm Common teaching

What the Church holds

  • Current norm Yes. "A priest is free to apply the Mass for anyone, living or dead" (can. 901).
  • A Catholic funeral can even be granted to a baptized member of another Church, at the bishop's judgement, if their own minister is not available and they would not have objected (can. 1183 §3).
  • Common teaching The Church holds that "every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved" (CCC 1260).

What the saints and mystics report

Private revelation

  • Emmerich: "no soul is lost whom ignorance alone kept from Jesus" (EMM-20).
  • The Manuscript's soul reports a drowned Englishwoman saved by baptism of desire (UMP-07).
  • Simma counts "non-Catholics' Our Father" among the helps of the souls (SIM-R6).

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