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
Accounts that bear on this
- EMM-20Anne Catherine Emmerich: A Jewish woman's mother walled up in a dark place; no soul is lost whom ignorance alone kept from Jesus
- UMP-07Sr Mary of the Cross (the Manuscript): She reports others' verdicts: an Englishwoman drowned at Mont Michel saved by baptism of desire; Pius IX straight to …
- SIM-R6Maria Simma: Helps: the Mass first, attended and offered, effective in proportion to the soul's love of the Mass in life; the …