The St. Michael the Archangel prayer ban at Masses comes a year after Bishop Mark Beckman limited the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Knoxville.
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Mark Beckman of Knoxville, Tennessee, banned the praying of the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel at the end of masses in his diocese.
In a statement to members of the Diocese of Knoxville published Friday, Beckman lamented that as he has traveled throughout his diocese, he “noticed that in some of our parishes additional prayers, including the Prayer to St. Michael, the ‘Prayer of St. Francis,’ a Prayer to the Holy Spirit, and others have been added regularly to the liturgy — recited together, sometimes before the entrance hymn, or immediately after the dismissal.”
“Having reflected on the importance of celebrating the liturgy in accordance with the mind of the Church, I do not think it appropriate to add additional prayers associated with the celebration of the Mass itself,” Beckman wrote.
“Therefore, I have asked our priests to catechize the people of God as we move away from additional prayers recited together immediately before, during, and immediately after Mass,” Beckman said.
Beckman instead encouraged pastors to find alternative ways to incorporate the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel “into the devotional lives of our families and communities beyond the celebration of the liturgy.”
Last year, Beckman limited the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) to one chapel at a retreat center once a month after previously announcing the suppression of all parish TLMs in the diocese.
Beckman declared at the time that the changes to the Roman liturgy after the Second Vatican Council as well as Pope Francis’ 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which placed sweeping restrictions on the celebration of the TLM, were guided by the Holy Spirit.