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Denver Rosary Crusade prays for the U.S.
By Nissa LaPoint
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Photo by James Baca/DCR |
While protestors brandished anti-corporation signs and repeated their mantra over a megaphone, a crowd of Catholic faithful took rosaries and gathered nearby in Civic Center Park Oct. 15 to seek the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession for the United States.
The faithful stood or kneeled on the concrete of the park’s Greek amphitheater that afternoon to pray the glorious mysteries of the rosary and seek Mary’s help in solving the issues of the country. October is the month of the rosary.
“As human efforts fail to solve America’s key problems, we turn to God, through his holy Mother, asking his urgent help,” Father Joseph Hearty, a priest of the Fraternity of St. Peter, said after the rosary.
The gathering of more than 150 faithful at the park downtown was organized to coincide with the Family Rosary Crusade 2011, during which Catholics in San Francisco and across the nation congregated to pray the rosary.
Father Hearty, chaplain for the Denver comitium of the Legion of Mary, organized the Denver Family Rosary Crusade in hopes of reviving devotion to the Virgin Mary. The idea for a Denver crusade was proposed to him by a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Littleton, where he is parochial vicar.
After praying the rosary and a litany to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Father Hearty noted the contrast between the Rosary Crusade that day and the Occupy Denver protestors. He was not aware of the planned demonstration by the group, who encamped in tents and marched downtown to the common theme of anger over corporate greed.
“Despite all this, it still went on,” Father Hearty said about the crusade.
The public rosary commemorated the 50th anniversary of Father Patrick Peyton’s October 1961 rosary rally in San Francisco that drew more than half a million people. The movement was started by Father Peyton in the 1950s and ‘60s when he led rosary events as a personal mission to encourage families to pray the rosary. He began the events after he recovered from tuberculosis in 1941, which he credited to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Several faithful who attended the rosary crusade said they support a public rosary because of its powerful statement and the great need for the Virgin Mary’s intercession.
“I came because I know our Lady will be the answer to the troubles of the world,” said Jill Guese, a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Littleton.
William and Theresa Dougherty drove from Bailey, Colo., with their eight children to attend the crusade. They said it was a small sacrifice to attend to stress to their children the importance of the rosary.
“We want to not just tell them but show them,” Theresa Dougherty said. “This is so important when we tell the kids how powerful the rosary is and that it will bring us healing.”
Father Hearty led the rosary and also led a prayer of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a prayer to St. Joseph. He prayed that the world would stop rejecting God.
Brian Pias of St. Joseph Church had hoped for a better turnout at the crusade but said, “It’s a start.”
Father Hearty said he intends to make the rosary crusade an annual event in Denver.
The Knights of Columbus escorted a statue of Our Lady of Fatima owned by Mary Tacito of Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Wheat Ridge. The statue was displayed during the crusade. The Legion of Mary sponsored the crusade that was open to everyone. The Legion is an international community of lay Catholics who serve the Church through spiritual and temporal works of mercy. There are at least 50 groups located at parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Denver.
Loretta McKercher of Holy Trinity Church in Westminster said she would support a rosary crusade next year.
“The rosary out in the public is so powerful,” McKercher said. “We need to show the world and not be afraid to profess our faith.”
A rosary crusade, said Kathy Miller, of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, is what the United States needs.
“We wanted to be here for the country, which is in much need right now,” she said.
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