Vatican City: Between 700 and 1,000 children from schools and parishes in Rome will gather with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican Gardens on October 1 to pray the Rosary for peace and mark the beginning of the One Million Children Praying the Rosary initiative.
The prayer will take place at 5 p.m. at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican. Children, families, schools and Christian communities around the world will join the prayer spiritually as part of the initiative promoted by Aid to the Church in Need.
The campaign has been organised by the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need for more than two decades. This year, for the first time, it will continue for an entire week, from October 1 to October 7. Communities, families and schools can choose a day during the week to pray for peace and unity.
The week will conclude on October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The prayer will extend far beyond the Vatican. Children and communities in countries affected by war, poverty and instability will also take part. Parishes and schools in Sudan are expected to join the initiative, while children from the Tsimané community in the Bolivian Amazon have already begun praying the Rosary in Tsimané and Spanish.
In Zimbabwe, St. Christopher’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo will gather children for prayer on October 4. In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku will broadcast children praying the Rosary from San Eugenio de Mazenod parish.
This year’s campaign is inspired by the message associated with the apparitions of Fatima in Portugal, in which Our Lady told the young visionaries, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of Aid to the Church in Need International and Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has invited people to take part in the initiative. He presented the Immaculate Heart of Mary as a sign of a life open to the Holy Spirit and as an example of faith, prayer and love.
The campaign comes as communities in many parts of the world face violence, persecution, poverty and instability. Organisers see the participation of children from different countries, cultures and languages as a shared expression of trust and hope.
The One Million Children Praying the Rosary initiative began in Venezuela in 2005 and has since developed into a worldwide prayer network involving children, families, parishes, schools and Church groups.
The initiative was also inspired by a saying attributed to Padre Pio of Pietrelcina: “When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.”
Aid to the Church in Need is encouraging parents, teachers, priests, religious, catechists and families to take part alongside the children. Those unable to pray an entire Rosary can also participate by praying a single decade as part of the worldwide prayer initiative.