Americans send 'spiritual bouquet'
to Pope Benedict XVI
The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) announced today, July 20, that its spiritual bouquet compiled during an Eastertide Prayer Campaign for Pope Benedict XVI has been delivered to the Vatican. The bouquet offered more than one million prayers for the Pope, including 24,000 Masses offered by Catholic priests.
CNS recently received word from the Apostolic Nuncio’s office in Washington, D.C., that the spiritual bouquet has been delivered to the Vatican, including the following prayers from CNS members and Catholics across the United States:
24,714 Masses Offered by Priests
264,179 Holy Rosaries
439,413 General Prayers
137,363 Divine Mercy Chaplets
108,716 Mass Intentions
19,713 Novenas
31,847 Days of Fasting
44,357 Eucharistic Holy Hours
“We are ecstatic that so many thousands of our members and other Catholics were motivated to rally around the Holy Father with prayers of loving support,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of CNS. “It is our firm conviction that encouraging loyalty and devotion to the Pope is a sure path to strengthening Catholic identity in Catholic higher education and throughout the Church.”
On Palm Sunday, at the height of the media attacks on the Pope this year, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York urged prayers for Pope Benedict from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Inspired by Archbishop Dolan’s call, The Cardinal Newman Society sponsored the Eastertide Prayer Campaign for the Pope.
Beginning Wednesday in Holy Week, CNS urged its more than 20,000 members and Catholics across the United States to pledge prayers for Pope Benedict.
On April 16, the 83rd birthday of the Holy Father, CNS announced that the spiritual bouquet had surpassed the 1 million mark of pledged prayers. Prayers continued to flow in from faithful Catholics on April 19, the 5th anniversary of the Pope’s election.
After the Prayer Campaign concluded on Pentecost Sunday, at least 1,070,302 prayers had been pledged.
CNS asked Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Pope Benedict XVI’s representative to America, to forward the spiritual bouquet to the Holy Father in Rome. A copy of the spiritual bouquet was also sent to Archbishop Dolan to inform him of the spiritual fruit generated by his call for prayers.
A number of other organizations and bloggers have encouraged prayers for Pope Benedict, including the Knights of Columbus, EWTN, Institute of Christ the King, and Fr. John Zuhlsdorf at the What Does the Prayer Really Say blog.
The Cardinal Newman Society is grateful to all those who have participated in the prayer campaign, as well as those who have assisted in gathering the prayers, especially Creative Minority Report and American Papist.
The Society, based in Manassas, Virginia, was founded in 1993 to help renew and strengthen Catholic identity in Catholic higher education.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/07/2010 00:55]