Vatican City, Apr 28, 2021 / 07:00 am America/Denver (CNA).
Pope Francis on Saturday will lead a rosary to begin a month-long prayer marathon for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pope’s rosary will be broadcast live from the Gregorian Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica at 6 p.m. Rome time on May 1.
Situated directly to the west of the Holy Sacrament Chapel, the Gregorian Chapel contains the relics of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, a Doctor of the Church, as well as a 7th-century icon of Our Lady of Help.
The rosary kicks off a month of daily rosaries prayed at Catholic shrines around the world for the intention of an end to the coronavirus pandemic and the resumption of work and social activities.
Families, teens, and young adults from Rome and the surrounding region will lead the rosary together with Pope Francis.
During the event May 1, Pope Francis will also bless rosaries to be sent to the 30 Marian shrines participating in the daily live-streamed prayers.
Among these are the shrines of Our Lady of Walsingham in England, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the United States, Our Lady of Częstochowa in Poland, the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in South Korea, Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in the Philippines, Our Lady of Knock in Ireland, the Virgin of the Poor at Banneux in Belgium, Notre Dame d’Afrique in Algeria, Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima in Portugal, and Our Lady of Health in India.
Participating shrines in Italy include the Holy House of Loreto and Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei.
The other global shrines are Jesus the Saviour and Mother Mary in Nigeria, the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina, Our Lady Queen of Peace at Medjugorje in Bosnia, St. Mary’s Cathedral in Australia, Our Lady of Lourdes in France, Meryem Ana in Turkey, Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre in Cuba, Our Lady of Nagasaki in Japan, Nuestra Señora de Montserrat in Spain, Notre Dame du Cap in Canada, the National Shrine Our Lady Ta’ Pinu in Malta, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Mexico, Mother of God in Zarvantysia in Ukraine, Altötting in Germany, and Our Lady of Lebanon in Harissa, Lebanon.
Pope Francis will also close the month of rosaries by leading the prayer in the Vatican Gardens May 31.
The initiative, organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, is in response to a request from the pope.
“Pope Francis wishes to involve all the shrines around the world in this initiative, so that they may become vehicles of the prayer of the entire Church,” a press release said. “The initiative is being conducted in the light of the biblical expression: ‘Prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God’ (Acts 12:5).”
The Vatican’s evangelization office said it had “extended this invitation to all the shrines around the world, in order to promote the diffusion of the initiative in the relevant regions, so as to reach priests, families, and all the faithful, inviting them to join in this prayer of intercession and hope to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
All Catholics are invited to participate in the daily rosaries however and wherever they are able, the press release said.
A liturgical guide, available in English, Spanish, and Italian, can be downloaded from the website of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Shouldn’t this have been done a year ago? Seems like a half-hearted effort, and maybe he’s realizing the pandemic is ending all on its own through natural causes and wants to get a prayer in to try to take credit for supernatural intervention.
Is it really ending? Is that what the data suggests? Is that what the news media is reporting? Or do you simply want to diminish any possible credit that God might receive in the event that the rosary marathon proves efficacious?
This is just Francis again playing his role as the spiritual auxiliary of the New World Order. They must not let the crisis die before all their objectives are fully accomplished. So keep people scared and firmly under control. Why not launch a rosary crusade against cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s or any of the other sicknesses that cause so much death and misery? Better yet, why not one against abortion and all the crimes and vices associated with the sexual revolution that have been aided and abetted in too many cases by members of the Catholic clergy and laity alike ? We know the answer and perhaps there is no point in continuing to rail against it all.
Perhaps Francis and his allies could engage in a little examination of conscience and reflect on their unqualified endorsement of the stupid and cruel policies imposed by dictatorial and incompetent governments. These measures have done nothing to lessen the severity or duration of the pandemic, such that it is, and have had disastrous social, economic and health effects. The losses of political liberty and religious freedom alone have been staggering. The Vatican might also repent of its scandalous relationship with the brutal Communist regime that unleashed this virus on the world.
We should have a rosary marathon for an end to unjust rule by oligarchs, and for courageous men to rise up to resist them.