At the end of the general audience, the Pope announced an initiative of great spiritual value: next Saturday, October 11, a Rosary for Peace will be held in St. Peter’s Square. The date is no coincidence: it coincides with the day the Church celebrates the memory of St. John XXIII—author of Pacem in Terris —and the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

The Holy Father encourages all the faithful to dedicate the Marian month of October, traditionally associated with the recitation of the Rosary, to intercede for peace “personally, in families, and in communities.” He also invites those who work or collaborate in the Vatican to experience this prayer every day at 7:00 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The central event on October 11th will be at 6:00 PM, when the Pope and those present will gather in St. Peter’s Square for the vigil in the context of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality. This moment will also serve to recall the address that St. John XXIII offered to heaven on the evening of October 11, 1962, after the solemn opening of the Council.

“I invite everyone, every day next month, to pray the Rosary for peace, personally, as a family, and as a community.”

The symbolic connection between the prayer for peace, the Council, and the figure of Saint John XXIII intensifies the papal call. In this context, the Rosary is not only a devotional practice, but a collective prayer and a gesture of hope for our times.

This papal gesture also takes on significance in its institutional dimension: by asking those who serve in the Vatican to participate daily in prayer at St. Peter’s at 7:00 p.m., the aim is for prayer to be interwoven with the daily life of the Curia.

With this call, the pontificate emphasizes that peace also requires a spiritual commitment. Prayer—especially the Rosary—is proposed as a means to inspire in the Church and in hearts the desire and will to seek paths of reconciliation and fraternity.