Protestant numbers are down; Catholics steady

For the first time since the foundation of our country, the United States may have less than 50% of its population as Protestants. From 1993 to 2002, Protestants dropped from 63% of the population to 52% of the population. According to the researchers, it will drop below 50% in the next two years. Catholics remained steady at 25% of the population.

Unfortunately, the number of people claiming no religion has climbed from 9% to 14%. We desperately need to pray that these people see Jesus Christ and see the full truth of the Catholic faith! The number of people adhering to Islam, Orthodox Christians, interdenominational Christians and native-American faiths rose from 3% to 7%. The number of people claiming the Jewish faith remains just below 2%.

Note: Protestants are defined as "all post-Reformation Christian churches, such as Baptist, Methodist and Episcopalian, including Mormons and New Age Spirituality adherents."

Source: NORC at the University of Chicago
Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain

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Update on "The Collar"

I have posted before about the new book, The Collar, which is about several men in the seminary. Well, I received this message from the author yesterday:

Hi everyone:

The Collar book tour continued this past weekend with an excellent event in Colorado hosted by one of the five main characters in the book, Father Don Malin.

Today's Washington D.C reading at the C.I.C. (1501 K Street, NW - 202-783-2062) has been postponed by the heavy rains that have deluged the capitol and will be rescheduled for mid-July. I will keep you posted as to the new date.

As always, please keep me posted with any comments you may have about the book especially thoughts about getting the word out there. If you have enjoyed The Collar and think that it's a book others should read --please tell people about it and the website!

Thanks so much!

Jonathan

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Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Memorial (1969 Calendar): June 27
(1955 Calendar): June 27

Today is June 27 and on this day the Church honors Mary under the title of "Our Lady of Perpetual Help". Catholic Fire posted this to describe the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help:

The child Jesus has just seen the angels who have shown him the instruments of his passion. St. Michael the Archangel holds the lance and gall-sop. St. Gabriel the Archangel holds the Cross and the nails. Frightened by the sight, Jesus has run to his mother’s arms so quickly that he almost lost one of His tiny sandals. It dangles from his foot. Mary holds Him lovingly but her eyes look at us - pleading with us to avoid sin and love Her Son.

His hands are in hers to show that, as a child, Jesus placed Himself in Mary’s hands for protection and to remind us that He now has placed into Her hands all graces, to be given to those who turn to His mother and ask.

The star on Mary’s veil shows her to be the one who brought the light of Christ to the darkened world - the beacon that leads the way to Heaven.

The falling sandal symbolizes a soul clinging to Christ by one last thread--devotion to Mary.

The golden background is symbolic of Heaven and shines to show the heavenly joy Jesus and His mother can bring to tired human hearts.

Prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Almighty and merciful God, Who hast given us a picture of Thy most blessed Mother to venerate under the special title of Perpetual Succor, mercifully grant us to be so fortified, among all the vicissitudes of this wayfaring life, by the protection of the same immaculate, ever-virgin Mary, that we may deserve to attain the rewards of Thine everlasting redemption. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, Forever and ever. R.Amen.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Microsoft, Warren Buffet, and Gates Foundation on Abortion

According to today's LifeNews Report, Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and the second richest man in the world, will donate 80% of his fortune to the pro-abortion foundation set up by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife. Buffett plans to give them 12,050,000 in Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway. One share sells for $3,000, and this would give the Gates foundation another $37 billion.

The Gates Foundation has given the Planned Parenthood Federation of America almost $12.5 million since 1998. These funds are used to persuade teenagers to support abortion as well as advance abortion in the United Nations. The International Planned Parenthood abortion business has received almost $21 million from the Gates foundation over the last seven years. These funds were used to kill unborn babies in third world countries.

This is horrible, horrible news. I ask you to contact the Gates Foundation and urge it to stop supporting Planned Parenthood and abortion.

Contact:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
PO Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 709-3140
info@gatesfoundation.org

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The end of trouble at Northern Kentucky University by Sally Jacobsen

Earlier this year, Sally Jacobsen, a British literature professor at Northern Kentucky University, led a group of students in destroying 400 crosses set up on campus to be a memorial for the 43 million unborn children that have been murdered from abortion. She was charged with theft, criminal mischief and criminal solicitation. However, the charges have been dropped!

She has just apologized for her actions and plans to make a donation to a local maternity home that helps pregnant women. Jacobsen is also paying the Northern Right to Life, the student pro-life group, for the costs of the Cross display that was destroyed.

"I apologize to [the group and its members] for dismantling [the display]," Jacobsen wrote. "I did not realize I was interfering with Northern Right to Life's freedom of speech and I deeply regret having done so."

Source: LifeNews

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Join in Prayers for the Elections!

Fr. Frank Pavone is asking people all around the country to join him in prayer. He is asking voters to pray the Rosary from July 4th all the way to Election Day in November. We must pray for the successful election of pro-life candidates.

Please read more about it here: http://www.prayercampaign.org/

Image Source: Fish Eaters Website

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Confession by Phone? by Internet?

I've heard a question asked recently whether or not Confession by telephone or Internet is permitted. The answer is of course no. As we see in the Gospels, it is about a personal encounter with Jesus Christ that matters. In Confession we not only confess our sins but we humble ourselves by kneeling down and begging for mercy. The Prodigal Son did not call from across the field: "Forgive me." Rather, the Gospel says, the Son got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him (Luke 15:20).

In Confession Jesus Christ runs back to us and pours grace into our souls. It is this personal encounter that matters.

The Catholic Church has also condemned Confession through the Internet:

The Pontifical Council on Social Communications on the Church and the Internet published a document in 2002 that states, “virtual reality cannot substitute for the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, nor the sacramental reality of the other sacraments, nor the worship shared in a human community of flesh and bones....Sacraments on the internet do not exist....Even religious experiences that are possible there through the grace of God are insufficient if they are separated from interaction in the real world with other persons of faith.”

Image Source: Unknown

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Philippines Abolishes the Death Penalty

Photo: Pope Benedict XVI blesses her personal Rosary. Source: REUTERS/Max Rossi (VATICAN) 

Update (June 24, 2006): President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines has signed the bill into law! She met with Pope Benedict XVI on June 26, 2006.

Original Post:

The Philippines Government decided to abolish the death penalty last Wednesday. AsiaNews reported Bishop Pedro Arrigo, chairman of the Episcopal Commission of Prison and Pastoral Care, said: "It is very important that both the Senate and the House of Representatives approved separate bills to abolish the imposition of the 1994 death penalty law." According to the International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care, around 124 countries have stopped executions. Though, it is not a mortal sin to excommunicate a criminal, nor even a sin at all.

Reflection:

"Even in the case of the death penalty, the State does not dispose of the individual’s right to life. Rather public authority limits itself to depriving the offender of the good of life in expiation for his guilt, after he, through his crime, deprived himself of his own right to life" (Pope Pius XII, Address to the First International Congress of Histopathology of the Nervous System, 14 September 1952, XIV, 328)

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Prayer for the Holy Souls

Immortal God, holy Lord, Father and Protector of all You have created, we raise our hearts to You today for those who have passed out of this mortal life.

In Your loving mercy, Father, be pleased to receive them in Your heavenly company, and forgive the failings and faults they may have done from human frailty.

Your only Son, Christ, our Savior, suffered so cruelly that He might deliver them from the second death. By His merits may they share in the glory of His victory over sin and death.

For all the faithful who have died we pray, but in particular for those dear to us, parents, relatives, and friends. Nor do we forget all who did good to us while on earth, who helped us by their prayers, sacrifices, and example. We pray also for any who may have done us harm, and stand in special need of Your forgiveness.

May the merits and prayers of our Virgin Mother, Mary, and those of all Your angels and saints, speak for us and assist them now. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

Another Prayer:

MOST LOVING Jesus, I humbly beseech Thee that Thou wouldst Thyself offer to Thine eternal Father, on behalf of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, Thy Most Precious Blood, which poured forth from the Sacred Wounds of Thine adorable Body, together with Thine agony and death.

And do thou likewise, O sorrowful Virgin Mary, present unto the Heavenly Father, together with the dolorous passion of thy dear Son, thine own sighs and tears, and all the sorrows thou didst suffer in His suffering, in order that, through the merits of the same, refreshment may be granted to the souls now suffering in the fiery torments of Purgatory, so that, being delivered from that painful prison, they may be clothed with glory in Heaven, there to sing the mercies of God for ever and ever. Amen.

Absolve, O Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from every bond of sin, that by Thy gracious assistance they may deserve to escape the judgement of vengeance and enjoy the blessedness of everlasting light. Amen.

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Reparation for Those Who Do Not Believe in God

"I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

Dear Lord:

On the night before your passion you were taken from us, beaten and mocked and condemned to death. Bound and beaten on your precious head, the very head that lay in a beautiful manager in Bethlehem. Your back was ripped open in the Scourging, and on the road to Calvary so many hated you; you almost died on the way. Your precious face was disfigured - your body beaten and ripped apart. O Lord, your precious hands which worked so many wonders, were pierced. On that day Lord, you liberated me. May your blessings be upon me and transform me on my pilgrimage to Life Everlasting. May the grace and joy of Christmas and Easter enkindle an eternal flame in my heart for love of you and neighbor that shall never abate. And, permit me O Lord, to die in love of Thee for Thou hast died for love of me.

O Lord, so many hate you. So many call you false and a liar. So many pretend as if you ascended to Heaven and left us here - alone. So many pretend the Eucharist is not truly YOU. So many hate the good of your Church and deny your eternal word of scripture; so many utter lies against your faithful. Lord, so many ignore you. They refuse to acknowledge you, and they practice political correctness instead of acknowledging You as the only God to have worked wonders. But, You, O Lord, are the only truth. You are the only light on our journey. If I died today, would I be no more? No! For the miracles you worked are forever recorded in scripture, the miracle of the Eucharist is ever before us. May your light shine upon those that hate you Lord. For, O Lord, your skin was ripped open for them. Your blood poured forth from your heart for them. It was by your Cross alone we are saved. The God of all Creation truly took flesh and mounted a tree to redeem our disfigured race. What love! And what greater love is there than truly giving yourself to me in the Holy Eucharist each and every Mass!

Lord, you need nothing as You alone are perfect. Please, permit me, if you will, to offer up the sacrifices in my life to you in reparation for those that hate you, my best friend, my Love, my All. O Lord, you let your apostles help you in the miracles of the loaves, permit me to offer my small sacrifices in union with Your perfect gift on the Cross. May my sufferings offered for you bring one soul to the truth of your Church. O Lord, grant that my work may produce much fruit and at the end, when I leave this world, you may say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." Lord, I love you. Forgive us all, my Crucified Lord. Forgive us, for you are the Savior of the World.

Amen

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