LOS ANGELES—As May, the month dedicated to Mary draws to a close, the rosary is moving to the center of Catholics' attention.

Special Masses and recitations of the rosary in the United States, Ireland and England will mark the 10th anniversary of the death of “rosary priest” Father Patrick Peyton. Father Peyton, a priest of the Diocese of Albany, N.Y., died June 3, 1992. The opening of his sainthood cause was announced in June 2001 by the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., where Father Peyton is buried.

Meanwhile, rosaries are being encouraged to pray for tensions in the Middle East, the United States' new terror alert and the clergy abuse scandals.

Pope John Paul II, who has been urging Catholics to say the rosary daily, has re-emphasized the call.

Speaking to a gathering on the Island of Ischia off the Italian Coast on May 5th, the Pope said, “I always carry in my heart the difficult situations in which not a few peoples of the world find themselves. I wish to present to the Virgin the petition for security and peace that rises insistently from so many parts, especially from the Holy Land. I invite you to pray with me to Our Lady so that these sorrowful invocations will be fulfilled.”

Bishop Donald Montrose, the former bishop of Stockton, Calif., says that Mary understands our troubles. Catholics should think of Mary as their mother because “when people are suffering a mother suffers along with them.”

Father Albert Roux of the Marian Movement of Priests has called upon those involved with his organization to pray with increased intensity because of the Church scandals.

Tammy Oullette at the Marian Movement of Priests Headquarters in St. Francis, Maine said the Marian Movement has been clear in its call for people to seek Mary's intercession in response to the scandals. As a result of the scandal in the Church, “we are calling for increased cenacles of prayer,” Oullette said, explaining that such a cenacle consists of two or more people praying together, and that literature on how to form acenacle is available through the national headquarters.

Oullette suggested that among other devotions, the laity avail themselves of “consecrations to the Immaculate Heart [and] the rosary” during this time.

According to Oullette, as a result of the scandal more people have been returning to prayer. “They are

realizing that prayer and fasting is our only recourse,” she said, adding that Mary's intercession is extremely beneficial.

Peace and Victory Michael Six, the National Rosary Congress Coordinator for the Blue Army in Washington, N.J., stressed that Marian devotion—and especially the rosary — are key to a peaceful world. “In the apparition at Fatima, Our Lady said to pray the rosary every day for world peace.”

Said Six, “There are connections between our actions the world, and we can have a mitigation of war through prayer and especially through the rosary.”

Six also cited the example of the battle of Lepanto in 1571 in which the badly outnumbered Christian fleet defeated the Moorish fleet in a critical victory as a case in which a rosary crusade preceded a military victory. Rosary crusades have also been instrumental in the overthrow of communist governments in Austria in the 1950s and in Brazil in the 1960s, and the prevention of a communist takeover of Portugal in the 1970s.

Six explained that the Blue Army's campaign to get people to say the rosary has been working. They Blue Army launched “The National Rosary Crusade for America” in 1996 in reparation for the sins of Americans and to fulfill the request by Our Lady at Fatima that people pray the rosary each day. Since the program's inception the Blue Army has documented more than 6 million rosaries said, with more than 1 million of those documented since Sept. 13.

Though the national headquarters of the Blue Army has not started a specific rosary crusade as a result of the scandals in the Church, Six said that “some Blue Army divisions have been praying individually for priests” since the crisis. He added that the “Blue Army [as a whole] is praying for priests,” as it has always done. He also said that it is important to remember that the difficulty is with a small number of priests, and “Catholics should pray for them.”

In this period of our country's history, it is especially urgent that people rediscover the rosary, said Six, who sees the recent terrorist attacks as “something horrible, but also a removal of God's protection: a chastisement for our sins.” According to Six: “We have time, but we must change.” At Fatima, he explained, Our Lady described war as “a punishment for sin.”

Car and Home

Another voice echoing the importance of the rosary at this time, especially for families is that of Holy Cross Father Tom Feeley. Father Feeley is the vice-postulator for the most famous rosary crusader of all, Father Peyton, who organized rosary crusades around the world, spreading the message that “The family that prays together, stays together.”

Father Feeley, who is currently working on a series of rosary meditations and will be sending 1 million rosaries to World Youth Day, says that families especially can use May as a time to rediscover Mary. “Invite her into the home, he explained, “and let her be the unseen member of the family at every meal.”

He explained that the rosary is a very versatile prayer. “We can say it in the car,” he said, “it's a great cure for road rage.”

“I judge distances by the number of rosaries I can say,” he continued, and he stressed that “you're not wasting your time when you pray.”

According to Father Feeley, “The rosary is really a contemplative prayer,” and a means for people to come to the “silence and interior peace that comes from living in the presence of God and Our Lady.”

Pope John Paul II had a very similar message May 5 in Ischia, noting: “During the month of May, which has just begun, in the school and company of Mary, we can journey in a truly contemplative way through the recitation of the holy rosary. This traditional practice is undoubtedly a most valid aid to contemplate the mysteries of the life of Christ.”