The Jesuit review *America* condemns the prayer to Saint Michael after Mass: a revealing controversy

The editor-in-chief of *America Magazine* publicly condemned the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel recited after Mass. A controversy that reveals a deep divide in the perception of Catholic piety.

The Fact

The American magazine America, published under the auspices of the Society of Jesus, is once again at the center of controversy. According to LifeSiteNews (June 25, 2026), Zac Davis, co-host of America Magazine's Jesuitical podcast, publicly condemned the recitation of the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel at the end of Mass, a practice encouraged by several American bishops and traditionally associated with Catholic circles attached to liturgical continuity. This prayer, composed by Leo XIII in 1886, had been removed from common use after the Second Vatican Council before experiencing a revival explicitly encouraged by John Paul II.

Our Perspective

The Prayer to Saint Michael is not a liturgical prayer in the strict sense: it is recited after Mass, once the celebration has ended. It does not belong to the Roman Rite but to popular piety, which the Church has always cultivated and encouraged. The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (Congregation for Divine Worship, 2001, no. 72) recalls that "authentic popular piety is a treasure of the Church" and that liturgical pastoral care must value it, not discourage it. Publicly criticizing it in a magazine claiming to be Catholic reflects confusion between liturgical discipline—legitimate in itself—and contempt for forms of piety approved by pontiffs and practiced by millions of the faithful. This condemnation needlessly offends consciences formed in the spiritual tradition of the Church.

For Reflection

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8). The Prayer to Saint Michael is precisely a response to this apostolic warning. That it disturbs certain ecclesiastical circles speaks volumes about the distance taken from traditional Catholic spiritual anthropology.