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How many prayers? Catholics in the Albany Diocese offered more than one million prayers for Pope John Paul II during Sunday Masses offered during his reign. Each Sunday liturgy includes an intention for the pope and bishop, who are named. Priests might now hesitate for a few weeks, as they remember to pronounce, "Benedict," after so many years of saying, "John Paul." The one-million prayers statistic is calculated this way: * Over the course of John Paul II's papacy, there were approximately 190 parishes in the Diocese. * Each parish offers about four Masses a week. Four times 190 equals 760. * There are Masses every Sunday, so 760 times 52 weeks equals 39,520 prayers for the late pope annually. * John Paul reigned for 26.5 years, and 26.5 times 39,520 equals 1,047,280. Even more prayers have been said for Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, who has been in office for 28 years. That means that Catholics have prayed for him during weekend Masses a total of 1,106,560 times. (4/28/05) |