Pope Leo XIV again called on the faithful to pray the Rosary as he greeted Italian pilgrims at the end of the general audience on Wednesday, October 7. From St. Peter’s Square, he encouraged them to invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary through this prayer, which he described as “so dear to the tradition of the Church.”
The appeal came on the day the Church celebrates the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary. In its report on the Pope’s appeal, Vatican News recalls that, in the Church’s tradition, Mary is invoked as a “safe refuge amid life’s difficulties.” It describes her as a heavenly Mother and a comfort to a world wounded by the scourge of war, thus linking the call to prayer with the difficulties that accompany human life.
The appeal at the audience followed the Pope’s earlier calls to pray the Rosary. Leo XIV made the same appeal on Sunday, October 4, in his midday address after the Angelus. A week earlier, on September 27, he had also called for this prayer in Lourdes, during his apostolic journey to France, which included a visit to the shrine.
In those earlier appeals, the Pope highlighted a special intention for prayer: that wars might end and peace be established among nations in conflict. With his renewed appeal on the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, he continued his calls for the faithful to turn to Mary in prayer.
