Happy Birthday Pope Benedict: 1 Million Prayers (and Counting) for the Holy Father

On the 83rd birthday of Pope Benedict XVI, April 16, 2010, The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) announced that the Easter Prayer Campaign for the Pope reached the goal of one million prayers.

“I am thrilled to report that the Easter Prayer Campaign has already surpassed the 1 million mark!” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of CNS. “At this trying time for the Church and the Holy Father the most important thing Catholics can do is draw closer to our Lord through prayer. By offering these prayers for the Pope, we support him in an invisible and mysterious, but very real way.”

CNS started the Easter Prayer Campaign for the Pope in response to a call by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York on Palm Sunday for Catholics to pray for the Holy Father.

On Wednesday in Holy Week, CNS sent out an urgent appeal to its members to offer their prayers for the Holy Father. The response with prayer pledges was immediate and overwhelming. In just two and a half weeks more than 1,000,000 prayers were pledged for Pope Benedict.

The more than 1 million prayers include 247,352 Rosaries, 131,441 Divine Mercy Chaplets, and 23,554 Masses offered by priests. Other prayers pledged for the Holy Father include holy hours, fasting, personal Mass intentions, novenas, and general prayers.

The Prayer Campaign will continue to run throughout the 50 days of Eastertide until Pentecost Sunday.

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.