(LifeSiteNews) — Advocacy group Catholics for Catholics is calling on laity to petition their priest to offer Masses for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Founded in 2022, Catholics for Catholics has grown in popularity thanks to the efforts of CEO John Yep, who hails from Arizona. Former Trump adviser Michael Flynn has also helped promote it.
Endorsed by Bishop Emeritus Joseph Strickland and other prominent Catholics, the group organized a massive 5,000-person prayer rally outside Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles last year to protest the team’s support for an anti-Catholic troupe of drag “nuns.” LifeSite co-founder John-Henry Westen spoke at the event.
LifeSite is rallying against bigotry before the @Dodgers honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an anti-Catholic hate group. pic.twitter.com/iTz1YJFn3S
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) June 16, 2023
Catholics for Catholics also hosted a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in March. Trump confidante Roger Stone, who had his house raided by the FBI in 2019, told the audience that after he threatened to sue his archdiocese after expressing opposition to wearing a mask and observing social distancing requirements, he was informed he was no longer welcome at church.
As part of its political efforts, Catholics for Catholics, which is a 501(c)(4), is calling on laity across the U.S. to have a total of 2,024 Masses offered for Trump and America. The group is asking the faithful to contact their local parish priest to say Mass for him and to then submit the data on its website.
The Catholics for Catholics website also allows users to send a postcard with a personalized message to Trump for a $10 donation.
Dissident outlet National Catholic Reporter published an article intending to throw cold water on the initiative. Jesuit clergyman Thomas Reese, who attended a brunch at the White House with pro-abortion Joe Biden on St. Patrick’s Day in March, complained that it “prostitutes the Eucharist for political purposes.”
At @WhiteHouse for #StPatrickDay pic.twitter.com/beYb096vMP
— Thomas Reese, S.J. (@ThomasReeseSJ) March 17, 2024
Reese, who is 78, has previously expressed support for homosexual clergy, married priests, and women deacons. He also has promoted a video that insinuated that Biden, who has overseen several homosexual “marriages,” was handpicked by God to serve as the president.
Catholics for Catholics replied to the Reporter by noting that “we all need prayers, especially during difficult times.” The group added that “we cannot forget that Donald Trump besides being a politician is also a man, a husband, a father,” while also observing that neither Trump nor Biden should receive Holy Communion — Trump because he is not Catholic, Biden because his support for abortion places him in “manifest grave sin.”
HOLY MASS @ People’s Convention w @realDonaldTrump .
We organized this bc at @CforCatholics we seek to bring Christ to the public square both figuratively and in this…LITERALLY #HOLYEUCHARIST
We prayed here for President Trump, our Nation and for all patriots who are… pic.twitter.com/cRpEf5bXeI
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) June 16, 2024
As of this article’s publication, a little more than 90 Masses have reportedly been offered since June 19, the date the program launched. The first Mass was said at the recently concluded “People’s Convention” hosted by Turning Point USA in Detroit. LifeSite has not learned the identity of the priest who said the Mass at the event.
During a keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “2024 Road to Majority” conference Saturday in Washington, D.C., Trump said that Catholics are being “persecuted” by Biden. He previously stated that Biden has been “going violently and viciously after Catholics” by “sending undercover spies” into Catholic Churches and sending “SWAT teams to arrest pro-life activists.” LifeSite has reported on the Biden administration’s weaponization of the FBI and Department of Justice against Catholics.