Pope tweets support for ACN children’s Rosary campaign

By Christopher Wells

“Let us #PrayTogether with the children of every continent who today are reciting the Rosary for peace in the world,” writes Pope Francis is in a tweet on Thursday. “Let us entrust to Our Lady’s intercession the suffering people of Ukraine and other people who are suffering due to war, violence and misery.”

One Million Children Praying the Rosary

The Pope’s tweet refers to Aid to the Church in Need’s annual “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign, which takes place each year on 18 October, the feast of St. Luke the Evangelist.

The campaign recalls the thought of St. Pio da Pietrelcina – known as Padre Pio – who said, “When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change”; as well as Jesus’ words in the Gospel of St. Luke: “Unless you become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

This year’s campaign, which is dedicated to asking for peace and unity throughout the world, is focused on God the Father’s love for the world.

Poster for the prayer campaign

Reaching out to God the Father

In a text inviting people to participate in the campaign, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, writes, “Looking around at all the wars and wickedness, the persecution, disease, and fears that weigh upon our world, people might well ask, ‘Is God really in control?’”

“Yes, He is,” Cardinal Piacenza responds, “but we must also reach out for His outstretched hands and cling to Him. God has reached out to us, through Mary (…). We believe that if we faithfully recite the Rosary together, then the holy Mother of God will lead us all as one great family into the loving arms of our heavenly Father.”

Through the intercession of the Mother of God

Announcing the event in a press release, Aid to the Church in Need explains that it “wishes to entrust, in a special way, all those places where people are unable to live in peace unto the powerful and loving hands of the Divine Father, through the powerful intercession of the Mother of God.”

In addition to Ukraine, the press release notes the “situations of war, violence, and profound poverty that continue to exist” in countries such as Nigeria, Myanmar, and Pakistan, and regions including the Middle East, the Sahel, and Africa.

According to ACN, the idea “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” prayer campaign was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005.

In 2020, during the Angelus for 11 October, Pope Francis offered his encouragement “to this beautiful demonstration in which children from all over the world participate.”

You can learn more about the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign, with links for free materials, at the website of Aid to the Church in Need.