Partisanship

My friend Fr Thesis in London said on LiberFaciorum the other day:

All Masses over the coming next days will be offered for the political life of our country as we approach Polling Day. Join with us in praying for all candidates standing for election, and for wisdom and insight for those casting their ballot …

To which a chum of his commented:

I always remember Fr Holroyd at St Bart's, Brighton, announcing that he would as usual be saying a Votive Mass for a Conservative Victory on election day …

Often after Morning Prayer we find ourselves touching on political matters, it must be said, and the General Election campaign has appeared, as neutrally as Fr Thesis expresses his intentions, in my prayers when I lead them and in the intercessions when others do. But I would never dare to offer a Mass, or even express a desire, for the hegemony of my preferred party.

This is partly because I am aware that as a parish priest I have a sort of representative function, in a community – thinking of the Church community specifically rather than the wider one – which bears a variety of different opinions. I am reluctant to rope my flock in to my own views, given that the Church as a whole does not express any in this matter. I am still more reluctant to imply that God thinks the way I do: nay, I tremble in case I might speak falsely on God’s behalf, as blessed Paul fears to do in 1Corinthians 14. It could be that in divine providence, there is a point, at this stage in history, in having a truly awful individual leading this or another country: it may be that good may come of it that could not come any other way. Absent a prophetic revelation, I must leave that to the Father.

Yet in many respects we are encouraged to tell God whatever might be on our minds, to share our hopes and desires with him, and then to leave him to enlighten us wherever we might be mistaken. I cannot get past the idea that offering a Mass for a particular election result is tasteless and leaves insufficient space for conscience and disagreement, but perhaps I am being too squeamish. If the State were really under threat of being taken over by an organisation whose aims and methods were clearly unchristian, would I really be so reticent? How far would we have to advance down that road before the matter became clear?

Do go to vote tomorrow! Unless you’re voting for the wrong candidate, in which case stay in bed.