It now appears that all previously banned Catholic Facebook pages have been restored by Facebook.

Large English-language Catholic pages like Father Rocky, Catholic and Proud, Jesus and Mary, and others are now restored, as are large Portuguese- and Spanish-language pages that had been banned.

Facebook has so far given no explanation for the bans or the restorations. Owners weren’t even notified that their pages were restored, they simply discovered that they were restored by checking the link to their page.

“Yes, crying here…” Carlos Renê, owner of one of the restored pages Papa Francisco Brasil told ChurchPOP. “…it just came back. No notification… I just realized I was on the air.”

Earlier today, the owners of dozens of Catholic Facebook pages worldwide logged on to Facebook only to discover that their pages had been taken down by Facebook without explanation.

Some of our sources say that some affected owners in Brazil sent lawyers to Facebook offices in that country to demand the pages be restored. If true, it’s unclear whether that was the decisive factor or not.

For more on what happened: