In an initiative promoting the rosary for the end of the pandemic, last week alone, more than a thousand people prayed the rosary together in Austria.
Newsroom (December 17, 2021, 9:16 AM, Gaudium Press) Since the beginning of December, the initiative “Austria prays” asks that the rosary be prayed on sidewalks or in pedestrian areas, so as not to obstruct traffic and to be able to meet the necessary distances.
Louis-Pierre Laroche, the creator of the initiative, came up with the idea after repeatedly hearing the phrase, “Now all you can do is pray,” in conversations after the pandemic began.
So every Wednesday at 6 p.m. local time, participants in “Austria prays” gather in a public place to recite the rosary.
Laroche noted that the rosary is a prayer that the Church often prays in times of crisis. He cited, for example, the Battle of Lepanto, a naval confrontation that occurred 450 years ago on October 7.
At that time, after an unprecedented struggle and thanks to the prayers of Christians, the Holy League, which belonged to Spain, Venice, Papal States, Malta, Savoy, Genoa, and Tuscany, defeated the Ottoman Empire at Lepanto.
Laroche stated that he did not want “Austria prays” to be politicized. “I would like to completely separate this prayer initiative from politics,” he insisted. The goal is “the end of this crisis.”
“Let’s also free ourselves spiritually from all these media reports that destroy people, that create even more pressure, that create even more hatred, that create even more divisions. Let us entrust all this to Our Lady.”
This “crisis of society” must therefore be “placed under the protection of Our Lady.”
This prayer movement is also gaining ground in Germany, Switzerland, and other countries, including the United States.
With information from CNA Deustch.
Compiled by Sarah Gangl
