Archbishop Gänswein ‘better’ and grateful for prayers after hospitalization

Rome, Italy, Jun 27, 2019 / 01:19 pm (CNA).- The Global Rosary Relay aims to have 1 billion Hail Marys said for the sanctification of priests June 28, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“This is the world family all joining together as one on Friday and praying for the sanctification of our priests,” Global Rosary Relay founder and organizer Marion Mulhall told CNA June 27.

With prayer locations in more than 70 countries this year, the relay is carefully timed with the recitation of the rosary every half hour.

The relay begins with the joyful mysteries in South Korea and then is passed off to Russia for the luminous mysteries, followed by the sorrowful mysteries in China before continuing on to India, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Uganda, Israel, and many other countries across Europe and the Americas.

“Ten years ago when we began the global rosary relay, we had 24 single locations in 24 countries for the 24 hour clock. This year we have 255 single prayer locations in every single corner of the planet,” Mulhall said. “The whole world is in prayer the whole day.”

“Anybody who prays the rosary on Friday — it doesn’t matter what time it is or where they are — can be pretty much guaranteed that they are joining, even if they may not realize it, with a participating prayer location around the world,” she said.

Mulhall explained that she felt personally called 25 years ago to “promote the priesthood at any price,” and this led to the creation of the World Priest Apostolate which organized campaigns to pray for priests for many years before starting the Global Rosary Relay ten years ago.

Saint Pope John Paul II declared the Feast of the Sacred Heart to be the World Day of Prayer for Priests in 2002. In 2016, the final rosary of the relay was led by the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

This year, a rosary will be said in Rome at 6pm local time for Pope Francis and his intentions.

Mulhall said that social media live streams and television broadcasts of the rosary on EWTN and other Catholic channels have led to tremendous growth of the rosary relay in recent years.

“Last year, 700 million Hail Marys were prayed and 12-14 million people joined in prayer, so to go for 1 billion Hail Marys is actually not that hard with the help of global TV broadcasts,” she said.

“She [Our Lady] is watching out for her priestly sons all the time and she is always asking us to pray for her most beloved sons,” she said.

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The chapel of the Holy Chalice in the cathedral of Valencia. Credit: Diego Delso via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0). / null

Valencia, Spain, Aug 24, 2021 / 19:19 pm (CNA).
The Archdiocese of Valencia conserves the relic of the Holy Chalice, believed t… […]

CNA Staff, Oct 22, 2020 / 06:19 pm (CNA).- The president of the French bishops’ council for Catholic education expressed solidarity with the country’s school community following the beheading of a Parish school teacher in an Islamist terror attack last week.

“In these dark hours, Catholic education feels deeply united in solidarity with the whole school community…and first of all with the teachers,” Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Lille said in an Oct. 19 statement. The statement was co-signed by Philippe Delorme, Secretary General of Catholic Education.

“Because it is our raison d’être, we will defend the school (and school community) so that ignorance is fought everywhere,” Ulrich said.

“Ignorance builds fear,” he added.

Ulrich wrote in response to the beheading of Samuel Paty, who was killed Oct. 16 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, a suburb of Paris. Student Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov reportedly attacked Paty, a history and geography teacher, after Paty showed his class a cartoon depicting Muhammad. According to the BBC, Paty had reportedly told Muslim students that they could leave the room before showing the cartoon if they thought they would find it offensive.
Eyewitnesses said that Anzorov shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — as he murdered Paty near the middle school where he taught. The 18-year-old Russian national of Chechen origin was shot dead by police shortly after the murder. “We will not back down on our confidence in the possibility of fraternity between people…of dialogue between social groups, between religions and cultures, between knowledge, between faith and reason,” Ulrich stated. “And as Catholics, we repeat here to Muslims in our country that we will always be in dialogue with them, without confusing them with fanatics, extremists and terrorists,” the bishop added. “We want to assure the members of the (Catholic education community) that the mission they carry is essential, that it is not in vain, that its fruits of humanization will outweigh the evil…you have our admiration, our friendship, our respect and our prayer,” the bishop said.
To all within the education community, “we reaffirm our firm and persevering determination to work for an educational fraternity,” he added.
Paty was remembered in a French ceremony Oct. 21, during which he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest national honor.
Numerous Catholic leaders have condemned the attack and mourned the violent murder in the days following Paty’s killing.
Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen was joined by representatives of Muslim, Jewish, and other Christian communities Oct. 18 at the memorial near the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, where Fr. Jacques Hamel was murdered by Islamists in 2016.
Archbishop Jean-Paul James of Bordeaux co-signed an interreligious statement with Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Protestant and Orthodox leaders of Gironde, France, condemning the murder and calling for renewed, peaceful solidarity among religious believers. “May his family, loved ones, friends, students and colleagues find here the expression of our deep compassion. We are all upset by this barbaric act, and particularly in solidarity with all the teachers deeply affected by this heinous crime,” the religious leaders stated Oct. 21. “Human life is sacred. We reaffirm that any attack against (life) in the name of God is unjustifiable. Together…we want to reiterate forcefully that no one can attempt the life of another, by claiming their religious or ideological convictions whatever they may be.” “In this difficult time, against violence and hatred, we want to firmly keep our commitment to be peacemakers,” they added. “The best bulwark against barbarism, fanaticism and terrorism remain fraternity, education and unity.” The leaders invited all believers to continue to pray and work for a peaceful society.

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