This Easter a growing number of Catholic converts are joining the flock

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | April 20, 2014 | Lilly Fowler

[rwa265]

FARMINGTON, Mo. • It is a special Easter for Wilma Whitworth, who is undergoing a spiritual rebirth, just a week before her 78th birthday.

Whitworth is celebrating her first day as a full-fledged Catholic this holiday. And she’s doing so in a largely Protestant town that is undergoing a kind of Catholic revival.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, or St. Joe’s as the locals call it, has had 24 children and adults, ages 7 and above, convert to the faith in the past year.

There is no one answer for the rise in Catholic conversion in this town of 17,000 an hour south of St. Louis. Some point to the friendly, welcoming environment at St. Joe’s.

Others at least partly credit the excitement around Pope Francis, or a new emphasis on evangelism that may be behind a broader uptick in adult and youth baptisms across the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It's from the Mass --- the 'reversed' standard version. The original says "Regard not MY sins, but the faith of Your Church."

ut some would put it t'other way around.

[who knows what evil?]

Ho, ho, ho...Happy Ishtar!

[piusv]

I wonder whether that is in the Latin Mass.

[piusv]

I see that it is in the Traditional Latin Mass, but it is prayed by the priest, not the laity.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Correct.