Half a million children pray the Rosary for peace in Holy Land

Amid the Israel-Hamas war, more than half a million children across the world prayed the rosary for peace.

On Oct. 18, well over 500,000 kids participated in an annual global rosary campaign sponsored by Aid to the Church in Need.

ACN (1) launched the global rosary campaign in 2005, and currently partners with the Shrine of Fatima, Portugal, the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network and the World Apostolate of Fatima. Each year, families, parishes, teachers and catechists are invited to gather children in praying the rosary, with ACN supplying resource materials to help promote the campaign and instruct participants.

The war itself was sparked by Hamas' Oct. 7 ambush -- coinciding with a Sabbath and Jewish holiday -- on some 22 locations in Israel. Hamas members gunned down civilians and took at least 199 hostages, according to Israel, including infants, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Israel declared war on Hamas Oct. 8, placing Gaza under siege and pounding the region with airstrikes as Hamas has returned fire. To date, some 1,400 in Israel, including at least 30 U.S. citizens, and at least 3,500 in Gaza have been killed, according to Palestinian officials. 

Sister Nabila Saleh, a Sister of the Holy Rosary assigned to Gaza's only Catholic parish, the Church of the Holy Family, said she and her community are determined to remain in place and not flee toward southern Gaza ahead of an anticipated ground invasion by Israel.

"We will not go," said Sister Nabila. "People have nothing, not the basic things; where should we go? To die on the street? We have old people, and people with multiple disabilities and elderly people. We need medicine. Many hospitals are destroyed. Where should we go?"

Holy Family pastor Father Gabriel Romanelli, an Argentine and Incarnate Word priest, echoed that determination in communications to ACN.

"What will (Gaza residents) find in the south of the Gaza strip? They will find hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Gaza City," he said. "And there is nothing in the south and the health and humanitarian situation is disastrous, with lack of water and food."

He said Gaza’s Catholics believe that "they are safer with Jesus. And that is why together they pray … and hope that the Lord will protect them and that the people who are working and praying for peace will change the decision to strike the church which has always been an oasis of peace."

Gina Christian, Oct 19, 2023

Adapted from www.detroitcatholic.com 

(1) Since 1947, ACN has been working under the Pope's direction to provide pastoral and humanitarian assistance to persecuted Catholics. Today, ACN manages 5,000 projects a year in over 145 countries. The organization is also ready to help in the event of natural disasters.