Thoughts on this official Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:
January 18-25, 2006. Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Texas.


American Protestants and Non-Catholic Christians have long played a positive role in keeping the so-called American Catholic Church more or less on an even keel, if only by stimulating competition.

Interestingly enough, religious history shows that it was the Roman Catholic Church, through one of its recognized saints, St. Louis de Montfort, that caught on to what, in English translation at least, appears an eucumenical spirit long before Vatican Council II!

In fact St. Montfort wrote this around the year of 1700 AD, enraging his French Jansenist bishops, to be sure!

On page 60 of the English edition of Montfort's classic The Secret of the Rosary, 26th printing of April, 1991, we read:

"All Christians have but one Faith and adore one and the same God, all hoping for the same happiness in heaven. They have one Mediator Who is Jesus Christ and therefore they must all imitate their divine Model and in order to do this they must meditate on the mysteries of His life, His virtues and of His glory."

page 99:

1. "We ought to pray and not to faint. (Luke 18:1) These are the eternal words of our Blessed Lord Himself. And we must believe His words and abide by them if we do not want to be damned. You can understand them in any way you like, as long as you do not interpret them as the world does and only observe them in a wordly way."