The Pope made his appeal today in St. Peter’s Square at the end of the Mass in which he proclaimed five new blessed.
“On this first Sunday of October, month dedicated in a special way to the Virgin of the Rosary, I invite you to recite this beautiful prayer, imitating also in this the new blessed,” the Holy Father said.
John Paul II referred explicitly to Mother Ludovica De Angelis, one of the newly beatified, and “her devotion to the holy rosary, which she always had in her hands,” when he greeted pilgrims from Argentina. The Italian nun had been a missionary in that Latin American country.
The Pope highlighted the importance of the Marian prayer when he convoked the Year of the Rosary from October 2002 to October 2003.
The Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on Oct. 7.
