The Pontifical Foundation “Aid to the Church in Need” (ACS) once again invites parishes, kindergartens, schools and families to participate in the annual prayer initiative “One million children praying the Rosary”, which will take place on 18 October. The aim of this prayer campaign is to implore peace and unity around the world, encouraging children and young people to trust in God in difficult times, according to ACS International President Cardinal Mauro Piacenza.
This year’s campaign poster features two open hands enclosing the globe and holding it together with children from every continent. These hands symbolise the divine Father who created the world in love and who wishes to save all peoples and bring them back to Himself safe and sound.
“Looking around us at the wars and wickedness, persecutions, diseases and fears that burden our world, people might ask, ‘Is God really in control?'” wonders Cardinal Piacenza in his presentation of the initiative. “Yes, he does,” the cardinal replies, “but we must also stretch out our outstretched hands to him and cling to him. God has drawn near to us, through Mary. We believe that if we recite the Rosary faithfully together, the holy Mother of God will lead us all as one big family into the loving arms of our heavenly Father’.
Concerned about the situations of war, violence and deep poverty that continue to afflict countries like Ukraine, Nigeria, Myanmar, Pakistan, or regions like the Middle East and the Sahel in Africa, ACS wishes to entrust all those places where people cannot live in peace to the powerful and loving hands of the divine Father, through the intercession of the Mother of God.
The foundation believes that the participation of several countries in past campaigns has been very positive. Already in 2020, during the Angelus prayer, the Holy Father encouraged people to join the initiative. “Some of the most positive reactions we have had have come from the very regions where peace is most needed. It is particularly moving to know that there are children in Iraq, Syria, Belarus or Myanmar praying together with those who gather in Fatima, Portugal, Canada or the United States. It gives us hope that the love that comes from faith can triumph over violence,” says Father Martin M. Barta, ACS International Ecclesiastical Assistant.
The ACS webpage offers free material for those praying in parishes, schools, children’s groups and families. The free information pack contains instructions on how to pray the Rosary, short meditations for children on the Mysteries of the Rosary and other materials, all available online, along with colouring pictures, in 26 different languages.
For material in
Italian language you can visit https://acs-italia.org/rosariobambini, while for other languages the site is https://acninternational.org/millionchildrenpraying/material/.
The origins of the initiative “One million children pray the Rosary” date back to the year 2005, when a group of children were seen praying the Rosary in a shrine in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and some of the adults who witnessed the scene recalled the words of St. Pio of Pietrelcina: “When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change”. Since then, the campaign has spread rapidly and become a worldwide phenomenon.
● The Rosary prayer will be broadcast LIVE from Fatima, Portugal.
● In Ukraine, the UGCC (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) has translated the texts of the campaign into Ukrainian and will organise it throughout the country, with a lot of effort, with courses for reciting the Rosary and distribution of a large quantity of material.
● In Argentina, the children do not come together just one day to pray for peace: they have decided to make a whole novena.
● The Malawi Bishops’ Conference distributed material nationwide in churches and schools.
● In Kenya: 45 schools.
● In Nigeria: 60 churches and schools in different dioceses.
● Australia saw an incredible increase in children and schools joining the action, five times more than last year.
