Under the gaze of a seventh-century icon of Mary, Pope Francis launched a monthlong, global recitation of the rosary, pleading for Mary’s intercession for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he prayed May 1 that Mary would move people’s consciences “so that the enormous amounts spent to increase and perfect weapons are instead used to promote research to prevent similar catastrophes in the future.”
The Pontifical Academy has promoted a conference to officially launch the Department of Analysis and Study of Criminal and Mafia Phenomena. The scope of the interdisciplinary body is to stop the influence of the underworld on religious events and places dedicated to the Virgin, including the “detours” taken by some Marian processions in southern Italy to salute mafia bosses under house arrest.
With much of Latin America in the throes of months of social and political unrest, the continent’s bishops have turned to the “Empress of the Americas” to lend a hand in the effort for peace.
After reportedly causing more than $10,000 worth of damage during two nighttime visits last week, the suspect returned to St. Gerard Majella, Hollis, on the night of Sept. 17 to try to damage the statue of the Blessed Mother that’s in the parish’s parking lot.
The Shrine Church of St. Gerard Majella, Hollis, was vandalized twice in one week in September, according to pastor Father JosephJude Gannon, who said he believes the same person was responsible for both acts.
The sixth annual late August barbecue at the Church of Holy Child Jesus in Richmond Hill brought together parishioners and local residents for two causes: to raise money for the parish’s food pantry and to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Knock in Ireland.
After video footage evidenced that a woman claiming to receive roses from the Blessed Virgin Mary was falsifying her claims, Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, Texas has declared her supposed Marian apparitions to be a “fabrication.”
Pope Francis is giving 6,000 rosaries that he blessed personally to Catholic communities in Syria as a symbol of his closeness to them on the Feast of the Assumption, he announced during his Angelus message on August 15.
Texas Bishop Michael Olson is shutting down rumors that he has validated Marian apparitions in the diocese of Fort Worth.
