Politics of the Catholic Mass

The Catholic Mass is the deepest and most solemn profession of the complete Catholic faith.  The word Catholic means universal and universal means complete.  The Church is an indirect and direct force in politics.  It is core Catholic doctrine that nobody has the right to leave their faith at the door.  This matters most when it is a Catholic politician who is trying to legislate without involving Catholic religious beliefs.

If you are an atheist, going to Mass will be considered to be against your principles. What if you do it to please your devout parents? Are you abandoning the principle? Or are you keeping the principle but obeying a more important one: the desire to keep your parents happy? Are you selfish if you refuse to go to Mass? Or are you selfish if you go to please your parents? Suppose you refuse. Is it about the principle or about how you feel about the principle?
 
Do not attend the Catholic Mass for estimations of the attendance at Mass is or could be taken into account by the state and government officials. If hardly anybody went, those entities would have less interest in the views of the Church than they have. They would not for example be able to humour the pope who may wish to make a visit to the country that is subsidised by the state to the detriment of healthcare. The vast majority of the Irish went to Mass in the past and they obeyed the priests without question. As a result, the government assumed that the will of the Church was the will of the people and Ireland - for example - was left without contraceptive and divorce rights. Going to Mass is indicating that other people may do the same and that the faith should pollute politics if enough people do it. Don’t do it.