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Religion See other Religion Articles Title: Call centre gives Catholics chance to pray by proxy Busy Roman Catholics who cannot find the time to pray are being offered a unique alternative - a prayer call centre where someone will do it for them. Manned by a team of more than 200 volunteers on a rota basis the "call centre of the faithful" as it has been dubbed is staffed from 9am until 11pm and has an answer machine on at night. Callers leave their intentions and dedications with staff who note them down in a pad and they are then passed onto a prayer group who do the job for them. The call centre operates out of the Sant'Anastasia al Palatino (St Anastasia of the Palatine) Church close to the famous Circus Maximus in the heart of Rome. Dozens of people call every day. Requests for prayers are not always for the callers themselves but for others as well. Volunteers come from all ages and all walks of life and the initiative was the idea of the church rector Father Alberto Pacini - who described it as a "sign of the times." Yesterday Father Pacini said: "The idea basically is very simple - we just wanted to offer the possibility of prayer to people who cannot make it to church. "In this age of mass media and internet I suppose you could say that it is a sign of the times but if it helps people to come closer to God then it can't be bad. "Obviously I would prefer the people to physically come into church and pray but if they can't then we are at the end of a telephone and we can do it for them. "They call in leave their prayer intentions which are noted down and passed onto a group who say the prayers for them." Father Pacini added: "We get all sorts of requests from people who are feeling depressed or who are ill, in desperation, in pain or at a difficult crossroads of their life. "We have had calls from people whose marriage has broken down, from people who are having trouble at home or cannot find work and who are scared. "But it's not just prayer requests for themselves we also get a good numbers of callers asking people to pray for others as well saying that the person in question looks sad or unhappy." Father Pacini, who used to be a missionary in Kenya, said that he had received blessing of his local bishop for the call centre. The Church of Sant'Anastasia is one of the oldest in Rome and was founded in the 4th Century AD it also contains breathtaking frescoes by Caravaggio and Bernini. It is also particularly sacred because it contains what are believed to be three genuine relics - a piece of the cross Christ was crucified on, as well as a pieces of cloth from the Virgin Mary's veil and St Joseph's cloak.
Poster Comment: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Leave it to the Cats to be at the forefront of prayer "technology"....
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