What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

Sandro Magister has a very good piece on the move of Cardinal Hummes to the Congregation for Clergy.  In the article he makes a point I mentioned in my entry on the same, where I spoke about H.E. passionate description of how Catholics are bleeding away from the Church. 

In October of 2005, during the synod of bishops, pope Joseph Ratzinger was deeply moved by the diagnosis that Hummes made of the state of Catholicism in Brazil and in the rest of South America:

“The number of Brazilians who declare themselves Catholics has diminished rapidly, on an average of 1% a year. In 1991 Catholic Brazilians were nearly 83%, today and according to new studies, they are barely 67%. We wonder with anxiety: how long will Brazil remain a Catholic country? In conformity with this situation, it has been found that in Brazil there are two Protestant pastors for each Catholic priest, and the majority from the Pentecostal Churches. Many indications show that the same is true for almost all of Latin America and here too we wonder: how long will Latin America remain a Catholic continent?".