September 30, 2025 // Pope Leo XIV

Pope: Pray the Rosary for Peace in October

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics to pray the Rosary each day in October for peace throughout the world.

The pope made his request at the end of his weekly general audience on Wednesday, September 24, the day after he said he had spoken again with the pastor of Holy Family Church in Gaza City, the only Latin-rite Catholic parish in Gaza.

“Thanks be to God, everyone in the parish is fine,” but the Israeli strikes “are a little closer,” the pope told reporters in Castel Gandolfo on Tuesday, September 23, before heading back to the Vatican after a day’s rest. The parish is offering refuge and assistance to hundreds of Gaza residents.

The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes standing by the Gave de Pau River is pictured on an undated photograph at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, France. In a joyful moment after the rosary on April 16, 2025, the shrine’s rector, Father Michel Daubanes, announced that the 72nd miracle from the famed pilgrimage site had been recognized. (OSV News photo/courtesy Lourdes Sanctuary)

At the end of his audience on September 24, Pope Leo noted that October was approaching and that with the October 7 feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Catholic Church traditionally dedicates the whole month to praying the Rosary.

“I invite everyone to pray the Rosary every day during the coming month – for peace – personally, with your families, and in your communities,” he said.

The pope also invited Vatican officials and employees to pray the Rosary together every October evening at 7 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica.

And he invited everyone to St. Peter’s Square on Saturday, October 11, to pray the Rosary together “during the vigil of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality.”

Throughout his time as bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Bishop Rhoades has shared his strong devotion to Mary and has encouraged the faithful of the diocese, whose patroness is Our Lady under her title of the Immaculate Conception, to pray the Rosary in order to grow closer to Christ through His Blessed Mother.

In a previous interview with Today’s Catholic, Bishop Rhoades explained that Mary “has been part of my life since childhood.”

His own mother’s name was Mary, he said, and she was very dedicated to the Rosary.

“Some of my earliest memories of prayer would be the holy Rosary,” Bishop Rhoades said, noting that Mary was the patroness of his home parish, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where he was ordained to the priesthood, as well as his high school, and at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, “which had the beautiful grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. On the Mount is where I really heard the call to the priesthood – praying there … at the grotto,” which is the oldest Lourdes grotto in the United States. Bishop Rhoades continued: “Then I went to the North American College in Rome [where] the patroness was Our Blessed Mother,” he added.

“I would say that all through my life, I have felt her motherly love and maternal love,” Bishop Rhoades noted. “I feel like I can turn to her always in times of sorrow as well as joy and feel her consolation.”

He said, “On the pilgrimage of life, on the pilgrimage as a priest and as a bishop, I feel that she is at my side accompanying me with her love.”

“My favorite prayer is the Rosary,” Bishop Rhoades said. “I love praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I love praying the Scripture, I love praying the Rosary. But the Rosary, for me, is just a beautiful prayer.”

Pray the Rosary with Bishop Rhoades

Our Local Parish, an initiative based within the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend whose mission is to help foster “deeper relationships within our local Catholic communities … [by utilizing] contemporary and traditional media to capture Christ-centered stories,” has recorded and distributed audio files of Bishops Rhoades praying each of the four sets of mysteries of the Rosary – the Joyful Mysteries (Mondays and Saturdays), the Sorrowful Mysteries (Tuesdays and Fridays), the Glorious Mysteries (Wednesdays and Sundays), and the Luminous Mysteries (Thursdays). To pray the Rosary along with Bishop Rhoades, visit ourlocalparish.com/bishop-rhoades.