Next to original Fatima statue, Leo leads Vatican day of prayer for peace
Today's Rosary at the Vatican was part of the day of prayer for peace which Pope Leo announced in September.
VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — On the traditional feast of Mary’s Maternity, Pope Leo XIV led the Catholic Church in reciting the Rosary, closing the day of prayer for peace which he invoked.
Fulfilling the promise he made late last month, Leo XIV led the Rosary in St. Peter’s Square this evening, concluding the day of prayer for peace which he asked Catholics to join in some weeks ago.
Leo urged the Church to look to Mary’s “human and evangelical virtues, the imitation of which constitutes the most authentic Marian devotion.” The American Pope’s homily even utilized language in the style of Marian co-redemption, though he did not employ the term itself.
“Through her, Woman of sorrow, strength, and faith, we ask for the gift of compassion toward every brother and sister who suffers and toward all creatures,” he said.
Pointing also to the Magnificat, Leo XIV opined that the prayer was apt for the day of prayer for peace, since Mary “considers the points at which humanity is broken and the world becomes distorted: the contrast between the humble and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the satiated and the hungry. She chooses the little ones; she stands with the least powerful in history, to teach us to imagine and to dream together with her of a new heavens and a new earth.”
Marking the occasion, and also as part of the current Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima was present in the Square – the statue in whose crown Pope John Paul II placed the bullet which struck him in 1981.
Having been in the nearby Carmelite church of Our Lady of Traspontina during the day, the statue was brought up into the Square in a solemn procession, surrounded by Swiss Guards.
Leo presented a golden rose to the statue, and later led the assembled crowds in the Litany of Loreto whilst kneeling before it.
Between each decade of the Rosary, a portion of the Marian section of Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium was read: both as part of the Marian theme but also as the Holy See’s way of marking the anniversary of Pope John XXIII’s solemn opening of the Second Vatican Council on this day in 1962.
{Last year the anniversary was marked by Pope Francis leading an ecumenical prayer vigil during which he promoted the link between synodality and ecumenism. The 2024 event was held in the Piazza of the Protomartyrs in the Vatican – the traditional site of St. Peter’s martyrdom.}
Closing his homily, Leo drew from a prayer used by John Paul II in Lourdes in 2004, as well as portions of the Vigil of Our Lady prayed by the Servite Order.
To these slightly older formulas, however, he added a more novel touch as he cited the “cry of the poor and of mother earth.”
The full prayer is found below:
Pray with us, faithful Woman and Sacred Vessel of the Word. Teach us to listen to the cry of the poor and of mother earth; to be attentive to the promptings of the Spirit in the secret of our hearts, in the lives of our brothers and sisters and in the events of history, in the groaning and rejoicing of creation.
Holy Mary, Mother of all the Living, strong, sorrowful, faithful Woman, Virgin Bride at the foot of the Cross, where love is consummated and life flows forth, be the guide of our commitment to service.
Teach us to stand with you at the countless crosses where your Son is still crucified, where life is most threatened.
Teach us to live and bear witness to Christian love, by welcoming everyone as brothers and sisters; to renounce the darkness of selfishness in order to follow Christ, the true light of humanity.
Virgin of peace, Gate of Sure Hope, accept the prayers of your children!
Another notable addition was the insertion of the refrain “solace of migrants” into the sung Latin version of the Litany of Loreto, marking the emergence of the theme of migrants which has already been aired quite a number of times just this week by the Pope.
Following the conclusion of of the Litany, Leo led the crowds in exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, using very traditional style cope and humeral veil.
Today’s dedication to prayer for peace, as urged by Leo, was taken up particularly by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa in light of the then-upcoming peace talks between Israel and Hamas.
Welcoming the implementation of a peace deal later this week, Pizzaballa reiterated his own call for October 11 to be given especially to the Pope’s campaign:
In this sensitive time, the Patriarchate calls upon everyone to join us in the Day of Prayer for Peace declared by Pope Leo XIV on October 11. May the Lord have mercy on the Holy Land, and may He grant it peace.
Saturday’s Vatican prayer vigil was marked by some interesting juxtapositions. On the one hand, the reverence of the ceremony and the traditional vestments worn by the Pope were striking. So also were the elements of traditional Marian spirituality.
But in contrast the servers wore unbecoming albs instead of the more customary cassock and cotta of the Vatican’s sacristy, and the pope’s partially ecologically themed prayer and the migrant themed litany seemed at odds with the rest of the ceremony.
Today also marked one of the most prominently Mariam themed events in Leo’s still young pontificate.
The Pope has already given hints of his Marian devotion when just two days into his pontificate he visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Genazzano, a little outside Rome.
The visit even prompted respected Marian theologian Dr. Mark Miravalle to express renewed hope and petition to the Pontiff to formally declare Mary as Co-Redemptrix.
No such sign of Leo doing so has as yet materialized, although Leo XIV’s namesake Leo XIII was himself a key proponent of Marian co-redemption.