The Journey Continues...

In memory of the Irish victims of Slavery
In the 12 year period during and following the Confederation revolt, from 1641 to 1652, over 550,000 Irish were killed by the English and 300,000 were sold as slaves, as the Irish population of Ireland fell from 1,466,000 to 616,000. Banished soldiers were not allowed to take their wives and children with them, and naturally, the same for those sold as slaves. The result was a growing population of homeless women and children, who being a public nuisance, were likewise rounded up and sold. But the worse was yet to come.

But all did not go smoothly with Cromwell’s extermination plan, as Irish slaves revolted in Barbados in 1649. They were hanged, drawn and quartered and their heads were put on pikes, prominently displayed around Bridgetown as a warning to others. Cromwell then fought two quick wars against the Dutch in 1651, and thereafter monopolized the slave trade. Four years later he seized Jamaica from Spain, which then became the center of the English slave trade in the Caribbean

On 14 August 1652, Cromwell began his Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland, ordering that the Irish were to be transported overseas, starting with 12,000 Irish prisoners sold to Barbados. The infamous “Connaught or Hell” proclamation was issued on 1 May 1654, where all Irish were ordered to be removed from their lands and relocated west of the Shannon or be transported to the West Indies http://www.giftofireland.com/IrishSlaves.htm

Cromwell and the Act Of Settlement 1652
From the Celts to the FamineBy the time the struggle was over, almost two years on, one-quarter of the Catholic population was dead and those found wandering the country orphaned or dispossessed were sold into slavery in the West Indies.

The mass exodus continued for months, with many of the old and sick dying on the journey. Cromwell's soldiers were paid off with gifts of appropriated land, and, remaining as settlers, constituted a permanent reminder of English injustice

The penal laws to the Act of Union
In 1641, 59 percent of the land in Ireland was owned by Catholics. In 1688, the figure was 22 percent, and by 1703 it was fourteen percent.The Protestant population, about one-tenth of the total

Not only were Catholics forbidden to vote or join the army or navy, but it became illegal to educate a child in the Catholic faith; they could not teach, open their own schools or send their children to be educated abroad. Catholics could neither buy land nor inherit it, other than by the equal division of estates between all sons. There were vast rewards for turning Protes*tant; a male convert was entitled to all his brothers' inheritance, a female to her husband's property. Irish language, music and literature were banned, as was the saying of the Mass.
http://www.gymmuenchenstein.ch/stalder/tables%20and%20charts/wke12/history_1.htm

Do You know of Bogdan Chmielnicki?
Every Uniat and Catholic priest was hung up before his own altar, along with a Jew and a hog http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Bogdan_Chmielnicki

Chmielnicki Revolt
In 1648, a Ukrainian officer Bogdan Chmielnicki, with the support of the Tatar Khan of Crimea, roused the local peasants to fight with him and the Russian Orthodox Cossacks against the Jews.

The first wave of violence in 1648 destroyed Jewish communities east of the Dnieper River. Following the violence, thousands of Jews fled west, across the river, to the major cities. The Cossacks and the peasants followed them; the first large-scale massacre took place at Nemirov (a small town, which is part of present-day Ukraine). It is estimated that 100,000-200,000 Jews died in the Chmielnicki revolt that lasted from 1648-1649. This wave of destruction is considered the first modern pogrom.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Poland.html

The first general report on the state of Catholicism by John Carroll in 1785, Catholics were a mere handful. He conservatively estimated the
Catholic population in those colonies to be 25,000. Of this figure, 15,800 resided in Maryland, about 7,000 in Pennsylvania, and another 1,500 in New York. Considering that the population in the first federal census of 1790 totaled 3,939,000, the Catholic presence was less than one percent, certainly not a significant force in the original 13 British colonies. http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_001_Colonies.html

1732 - February 22, George Washington is born in Virginia. Also in February, The First Mass is celebrated in the only Catholic church in colonial America, in Philadelphia. In June, Georgia, the 13th English colony, is founded

Do you fear that this, your perception of the church’s failure to address your favorite issue—or to take the orthodox or radical position that you espouse, will cause the church to lose most of its members?

The Roman Catholic continues to grow globally. It has even reversed the trend in defections from her to pentecostal and evangelical churches in Latin America.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/apr/08/yehey/top_stories/20070408top1.html

Catholics set to pass Anglicans as leading UK church - that was the lead story in the Times on Thursday - the story was based on a report from Cambridge University into the lives of Catholic immigrants, which also predicted that the number of regular Catholic churchgoers will soon overtake Anglicans on present trends
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article1386939.ece

September 6, 2007 Catholic Population Officially Leaps To 650,000 ATLANTA—The Catholic Church in North Georgia is now the 26th largest diocese in the country, falling between El Paso, Texas, and Providence, R.I. The Atlanta Archdiocese recently updated its official Catholic population figure, nearly doubling in size to 650,000 from 350,000. Leaders said the new headcount better reflects reality as the church comes to grips with its 10 years of explosive growth. The new population number for the first time counts people not in the habit of registering as parishioners either for cultural reasons or out of concerns the registry might be used as a tool for immigration enforcement. http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/2007/09/06/pop/

The latest United Council of Churches’ report in its 75th Yearbook of American and Canadian rate of growth The top 25 churches that grew in the USA and Canada, per the UCC 2007 report, are:

1. The Catholic Church, 69,135,254 increase of 1.94 percent.
2. The Southern Baptist , 16,270,315 increase of .02 percent.
3. United Methodist Church, 8,075,010 decrease of 1.36 percent.
4. Latter-day Saints, 5,690,672 increase of 1.63 percent.
5. The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 no increase or decrease
6. National Baptist Convention, 5,000,000 no increase or decrease
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church 4,850,776 decrease of 1.62 percent.
8. National Baptist Convention 3,500,000, no increase or decrease
9. Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,098,842 decrease of 2.84 percent.
10. Assemblies of God, 2,830,861 increase of 1.86 percent.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/apr/08/yehey/top_stories/20070408top1.html

Number of Catholics and Priests Rises Pontifical Yearbook of 2007 Releases Data
The 2007 edition of the yearbook, presented to Benedict XVI today, stated that as of year-end 2005, the latest date for which data are available, there were 1.115 billion Catholics worldwide. showed an increase of 1.5% of Catholics compared with the 1.098 billion listed the previous year.
areas where Catholic growth was greater than population growth.
There was an increase of 3.1% of Catholics in Africa, whose population has grown by slightly less than 2.5%, the communiqué said. "The Asian and American continents have also registered a higher increase in Catholics than in population growth, 2.71% against 1.18% for Asia, and 1.2% against 0.9% for America," continued the Vatican statement. There was a slight increase of Catholics in Europe.

The Pontifical Yearbook revealed that the number of diocesan and religious priests rose to 406,411 from 405,891
The percentage increases were much higher in Asia and Africa, 3.8% and 3.55%, respectively, it noted. This is in contrast to "Europe and America with a percentage decrease of about a half point,

Africa and Asia proportionately had more priests, the Vatican statement noted: "Africa and Asia together provided 19.58% to the world's overall number in 2004; in 2005 their contribution had risen to 20.28%." The Americas maintained a percentage of around 29.8%, while Oceania stayed stable, at slightly over 1% of the world's priests, according to the communiqué http://www.jknirp.com/numcat.htm

Qatar’s first Catholic Church will be inaugurated in February
Doha, Sep. 26, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The first Catholic church in Qatar, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, will be consecrated in February 2008, the AsiaNews service reports

The future parish priest Fr. Tom Veneration, tells AsiaNews: “After over 20 years of making formal requests to the authorities, the government has finally granted the Christian confessions land to build their own places of worship. The Catholic community were given the largest piece of land, because our presence here goes back down the centuries and also because our community is the largest, now numbering over 100 thousand faithful”.
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=10388&size=A

The Christians Are Coming Back to Arabia – Fourteen Centuries after Mohammed
They could soon become the majority of the population in the United Arab Emirates. And in Saudi Arabia, too, their numbers are increasing. Who they are, where they come from, and how they live. A report from Dubai and Abu Dhabi ROMA, August 31, 2007 – Three months ago to the day, on May 31, the Holy See established diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors with the United Arab Emirates

More than half of these foreign workers are Christians. Adding up the figures, Christians account for more than 35 percent of the population of the United Arab Emirates. Around a million of them are Catholic. And it's not only in the UAE – in Saudi Arabia, too, it is estimated that there are already about a million Catholics from the Philippines.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=164081&eng=y

Muslims converts face ostracism in France Muslims are converting to Christianity in their thousands in France but face exclusion from their families and even death threats. The Muezzin call to prayer. But here in France it is no longer reaching all Muslim ears. Around 15,000 Muslims each year are converting to Christianity -
around 10,000 to Catholicism and 5,000 to Protestantism. Many Muslims in France hide their conversion but the trend is continuing. World wide around six million Muslims a year convert to Christianity.
http://zeenews.com/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=352375&sid=ZNS

China Catholics throng to church Sunday, 23 September 2007Beijing's Southern Cathedral has the kind of congregation many Catholic churches in Europe can only dream of attracting. There are no official ties between China and the Vatican, despite attempts by both sides over recent months to overcome their differences. But that does not seem to matter to the faithful at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to give the Beijing church its full name. The solid-looking brick cathedral, founded in 1605 by Jesuit Matteo Ricci, is the base of newly-appointed Beijing Bishop Father Joseph Li Shan.

Father Joseph, whose appointment was approved by the Vatican, is in charge of one of China's main dioceses. It has a flock of at least 50,000 peopleThe diocese runs a total of 19 churches, a seminary, a convent, a clinic and a school. Its flock includes old and young, and is drawn from different social groups http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7009165.stm

1513- Ponce de Leon, who discovered the "island of La Florida" No priests accompanied this voyage, but as a Catholic layman, Ponce himself dedicated this land to God
1521 - The first authenticated visit of priests when Ponce de Leon finally carried out a commission given him seven years earlier

1565 -St. Augustine." The first pastor of the future United States, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, offered there a Solemn Mass in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,Spaniards and Indians in the first communal Thanksgiving of our country's first permanent settlement. It also marked the inception of the Parish of St. Augustine.

1597 - An Indian uprising decimated Georgian Franciscans in 1597, but within the century the Friars Minor organized at least thirty thriving missions at which 26,000 Indians were instructed in European arts and crafts as well as Catholic catechism.

1598- Our nation's second church was erected in 1598-in San Juan, later Saint Gabriel, New Mexico. In that same year, "Nuestra Senora de la Soledad" (Our Lady of Solitude), the first hospital, was built in Florida

1636 - In June, Roger Williams founds Providence and Rhode Island. Williams had been banished from Massachusetts
1646 - In Massachusetts, the general court approves a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death.

1649 The Religious Toleration Law of 1649 establishing toleration for all religions in early Maryland
1652 - Rhode Island enacts the first law in the colonies declaring slavery illegal.

1654 Maryland. In the new colony, religious tolerance for all so-called Christians was preserved by Calvert until 1654. In that year, Puritans from Virginia succeeded in overthrowing Calvert's rule

1656 - Massachusetts, where it was illegal to participate in any faith other than the legally established congregationalism of the Puritan founders of the colony. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521525047

In 1656, the Friends of Society, also called Quakers, arrived in Boston and were greeted by quite a welcome wagon. The Puritans, the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had them whipped, jailed and hanged for breaking their strict religious codes that they enforced as laws. Yes, these were the folks who a quarter of a century before fled Europe in order to have religious freedom. Once here, however, they only wanted freedom for their own religion. The Quakers were banished from Boston and hung if they returned. Eventually an area called Pennsylvania http://www.helium.com/tm/364298/firs...-quakers-early
Quakers: Persecution in colonial MassachusettsA law was passed at the same time, subjecting every shipmaster importing Quakers or Quaker writings to a heavy fine; adjudging all Quakers who should intrude into the colony to stripes and labor in the house of correction, and all defenders of their tenets to fine, imprisonment, or exile..
1688 - Quakers in Pennsylvania issue a formal protest against slavery in America.

1692 Maryland's famous Religious Toleration Act officially ended, and the Maryland Assembly established the so-called Church of England as the official State religion
1692 - In May, hysteria grips the village of Salem, Massachusetts, as witchcraft suspects are arrested and imprisoned.

1700 - In June, Massachusetts passes a law ordering all Roman Catholic priests to leave the colony within three months, upon penalty of life imprisonment or execution. New York then passes a similar law

1702 - In Maryland, the Anglican Church is established as the official church, financially supported by taxation imposed on all free men, male servants and slaves.

1706 - South Carolina establishes the Anglican Church as its official church
1728 - Jewish colonists in New York City build the first American synagogue.

1732 - February 22, George Washington is born in Virginia. Also in February, The First Mass is celebrated in the only Catholic church in colonial America, in Philadelphia. In June, Georgia, the 13th English colony, is founded
http://www.scarborough.k12.me.us/wis/teachers/dtewhey/webquest/colonial/colonial%20era%20timeline.htm

FROM COLUMBUS TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/f...ory_part_I.htm

Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore (1580-1632)
George Calvert was the first person to dream of a colony in America where Catholics and Protestants could prosper together. He was born in Yorkshire, England and studied at Trinity College at Oxford. Sir Robert Cecil, who worked for King James I, hired George to be his secretary. George loved his work. Sir Robert trusted George as a good advisor. King James I then rewarded him with the title of “Knight” for good service in 1617. George became, Sir George Calvert, Secretary of State for King James I.

By the time that King James I died and his son Charles I ruled England, George had distinguished himself as a statesman and loyal subject. He served several terms as a Minister of Parliament. King James I, and later his son King Charles I, gave George lands in Ireland and grants of money. Yet George had a problem: he had become a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Catholics were not permitted to work in high offices for the King of England or to work as Ministers of Parliament.

In 1625, George announced to James I that he had become a Catholic, and so had to resign his job. But King James I liked George so much that he decided to give him another title. Sir George Calvert then became the First Baron of Baltimore, a town on the southern coast of Ireland.

In 1620, George Calvert (1579/80-1632) purchased a parcel of land in Newfoundland from Sir William Vaughan. The land extended from just south of Aquaforte to Caplin Bay (now Calvert). The following year, Calvert's colonists set off for Ferryland under the leadership of governor Captain Edward Wynne. After the colony had been established, Calvert obtained a larger land grant from King James I of England, who awarded him "the Province of Avalon". Although the archaeological history of Ferryland essentially stops with the French raid of 1696, the succeeding two centuries are filled with fascinating characters and events. Many of these are interpreted at the Ferryland Museum

George then asked the King for a grant of land further south near the Chesapeake Bay. He drew a map for King Charles I, showing a territory that he wanted just north of the colony of Virginia. He hoped that this territory would have warmer weather and so be more suitable for an English colony. George died in 1632, before Charles I had time to approve the charter for George’s colony, named Maryland (“Terra Mariae”). George’s eldest son, Cecil, the Second Lord Baltimore helped to bring his father’s dream colony to life. Another son, Leonard, became Maryland’s First Governor.
http://mdroots.thinkport.org/library/georgecalvert.asp
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/avalon/history/default.html


by Kristine L. Franklin
I believed, as most Evangelicals do, that my own brand of Christianity was the most "authentic," i.e. the closest to the New Testament beliefs and practice - the most "biblical." In Guatemala I was confronted with something I had never considered before: that my Christianity was in fact, a largely American phenomenon.

We were taught that only in our church, or a church which shared our Dispensational interpretive system,1 could a person find the complete truth about the Bible. The big denominations, the "mainline churches," were all apostate we were warned. Those churches were best avoided, for in them, a person would hear error taught and might be deceived into believing it. Errors included things such as infant baptism, amillennialism, speaking in tongues, faith healing or, worst of all, that a Christian could lose his salvation through serious sin.

We had the truth at our church, period. Anyone who wanted the whole story about God would have to come to our church and study the Bible the way we did. When meeting someone from another denomination for the first time, we were taught to view with suspicion that person's claim to being a Christian. If they didn't believe pretty much what we did, there was a good chance they weren't really "born again." We were constantly reminded by our pastor that we were obligated to share the real truth with them, especially if they were Catholics. We had Jesus, they didn't. It was that simple.

"If a person's knowledge of truth depends to a great measure upon his ability to read and understand and use Scripture, and if that person's growth in Christ depends upon his being able to do the same, what about the illiterate?"

Guatemala has an illiteracy rate of about 50 percent. How would those illiterate believers grow in Christ? How could they fulfill the mandate of prayer and daily personal Bible study? Translating the Bible into a person's native language, (Guatemala has over 22 distinct Mayan languages in addition to Spanish) wouldn't even begin to help him understand, in context, Scripture's meaning. Illiterate people have always depended for knowledge of the truth and for spiritual growth, not on the Bible, a book they can't read, but on the Church and its teaching and preaching.

This realization was earth-shaking. I saw that evangelicalism had become, by its "Bible alone" principle, a religion of the literate elite. As a missionary taking the gospel to illiterate people, I realized I had to be absolutely sure, before God, that what I was telling them was, in fact, the Christian Faith, free from error. It had to be 100 percent Truth with a capital T. The problem was, using the "Bible alone" principle I had been taught, I had no way to be absolutely sure.

I witnessed among Guatemalan Evangelicals a cacophony of conflicting teachings. Pentecostal television preachers railed against the devil and cast out demons right and left. Fundamentalist non-Pentecostal preachers were just as busy railing against the Pentecostals for speaking in tongues, which was, they warned, a sure sign that they were in cahoots with the devil. Some preachers were teaching a "health and wealth gospel" in one of the Western Hemisphere's poorest nations. Many preached American-style democracy as the "biblical" government God wanted to see in Guatemala. Baptists preached that infant baptism didn't count and that those who practice it aren't "true Christians." Lutheran missionaries were busy baptizing babies. Quakers told people they didn't need any outward symbols of Christianity.

In place of the "One Faith," I saw in Guatemala hundreds of "faiths," hundreds of competing preachers. When there was One Faith, Christianity swept the world like wildfire. At no time in the history of Protestantism has an entire pagan nation turned to Christ. I thought of all the many pagan groups to whom the Catholic Church came and preached the Gospel and who were converted to Christ as a result: the Slavs, the Irish, the Gauls, the Saxons, the fierce Nordic races, the Japanese, Indians of South America, Africans, the list was endless. And here we were in Guatemala as "missionaries," making Catholics into Protestants. These people had been Catholic for five hundred years. All we were doing was "converting" Christians to our way of understanding the Bible. Not a very impressive thing when you compare it to the 2000 years of Catholic evangelization.

The most astonishing discovery came when it dawned on me through long hours of reading and studying Scripture and conservative Evangelical commentaries on biblical sufficiency that Scripture doesn't even teach that it alone is sufficient for knowing all Truth about the Faith. Protestants presuppose sola scriptura, without giving the slightest thought to the possibility that the "Bible alone" is an incorrect view. If that presupposition were erroneous, I reasoned, then everything which was built upon it would be dubious as well.

I knew I couldn't stay where I was as an Evangelical. I had been sharing my struggles with Marty, and he had been doing similar study and soul searching. We decided to resign from our mission board and return to the United States, where my husband took a job teaching in a public high school. Upon arrival back in the States we didn't know where we were headed theologically, but we did know that Evangelicalism was behind us forever. From the time we made this difficult decision to the time we entered the Catholic Church, six months went by.
http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/0.1/solved.htm