Ron DeSantis dodges question about praying to saints

Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t committing to a position on one controversial tenet of Catholic catechism.

Asked in New Hampshire whether it was “OK to pray to saints,” the 2024 presidential candidate didn’t answer the question in the affirmative or negative, instead redirecting the question to more of a relativist framing.

“Is it OK to pray to saints versus? Well, I mean, the different traditions do different things. I mean, what I try to say is, you know, I’m not out here beating my chest saying that God’s on my side. I just try to conduct myself in a way so that I’m on his side,” he said Wednesday in Hampton, at an event hosted by the Never Back Down super PAC.

The Catholic Answers website notes “the historic Christian practice of asking our departed brothers and sisters in Christ — the saints — for their intercession has come under attack in the last few hundred years. Though the practice dates to the earliest days of Christianity and is shared by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, the other Eastern Christians, and even some Anglicans, it still comes under heavy attack from many within the Protestant movement that started in the sixteenth century.”

DeSantis was raised Catholic in Dunedin, of course. While he’s never given a position on asking for saintly intercession before, he has openly fantasized about spending time with Jesus Christ and his Apostles when asked which historical figure he would want to have dinner with.

“Could I have been there with Jesus’ Disciples?” he asked interviewer David Brody.

During that colloquy last summer, DeSantis went on to flesh out the scenario.

“I mean, these are people who, you know, Peter is just fishing one day and all of a sudden this guy comes up to him, catches all the fish and says, ‘You know, you’re going to be a fisher. I want you to be a fisher of men, come with me,’” DeSantis said.

“And so these guys all went out and they dedicated their life to spreading the Gospel and they all were killed for, you know, they tried to kill John. John ended up, you know, being able to survive, but I mean, the intent was to put him to death, too. And you know, to talk about what that was like, you know, talk about what their, what their impressions are.”

Indeed, many of the Apostles died while proselytizing in places with other spiritual traditions.

“I look back at that and would love to have been able to be there with them,” DeSantis added.