Blogs
Mary in the News: June 10, 2020
By Michael Duricy
Marian Library and International Marian Research Institute Features
Updates
An All Ireland Rosary Rally Conference was held on June 6, 2020 and broadcast on Radio Maria Ireland. Among the speakers was an IMRI graduate, Father Donald Calloway, MIC.
Mary in Media: Books, Films, Music, etc.
Vortice Dance Company pays tribute to the pilgrims of Fátima with Christie projection mapping
Vortice Dance Company, one of Portugal's most internationally prestigious dance companies, produced a video-mapping show with no audience in seats using Christie® projectors as a tribute to the pilgrims unable to travel to Fátima this year to visit the Sanctuary of Fátima due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Fátima, located in the center of Portugal, with a population of 11,000 people, is home to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, world famous for pilgrimage for Catholics, and welcomes around six million people every year.
The show, Pellegrino, meaning 'pilgrim' in Italian, was staged without a live audience. Vortice created a spectacular 90-square meter projection mapping on the façade of the Missionários da Consolata building, accompanied by dance and streamed live to an audience of 25,000 people....
Marian Events
Title: Annual Global Rosary Rally
Topic: Pray the Rosary unite with your country and help encircle the world in prayer.
Dates: June 19, 2020
Time: all day depending on time zone
Location: Online
The annual Global Rosary Relay for the sanctification of priests on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 19, 2020 when we encircle the world in prayer once again, in this its eleventh year, with more prayer locations than ever taking part in what is now recognized as a truly significant and powerful devotional initiative within the Catholic Church to recognize and bless the work of priests serving the faithful the world over.
Each of the participating prayer locations in 85+ countries prays a particular mystery of the Rosary at a particular half-hour on the day in thanksgiving to God for our priests and to implore the protection and loving care of Our Lady, Mother of all priests, for all her priestly sons. With the coming of midnight on June 19, 2020, the entire world, by then, will have been encircled in prayer for our priests on this The Annual Rosary Relay Day.
It was the great Irish priest Father Patrick Peyton who never tired of saying that: "The Family that prays together stays together." As the family of the Church, you are invited to join your prayers to the prayers of millions throughout the world on June 19, 2020. It is an opportunity for us to raise our hearts to God for all priests in the exercise of their ministry; that they will be blessed, through our prayers, with God's grace for their priesthood; that in this worldwide communion of prayer for them, they may experience our gratitude and support; and finally that they will persevere in unity with Christ and His Church and shepherd the Lord's flock to the safe pastures of His Kingdom....
Addendum
At 6 p.m. on June 19, 2020, as part of the Worldpriest Global Rosary Relay Day for the Sanctification of Priests 2020, a wonderful joint initiative will take place between Worldpriest Global Apostolate and Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages, which has been bringing pilgrims on spiritual journeys to the universal church since 2008. Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages developed from Inside the Vatican Magazine, founded in 1993. Currently, Inside the Vatican Pilgrimages is hosting virtual pilgrimages to holy places, introducing the faithful to the 'living stones' around the world
This initiative will take the form of a virtual Rosary at 6 p.m. local Rome time, for the intentions of Pope Francis. Everyone around the world--regardless of their location--will be very welcome to join in this important prayer gift to His Holiness at the appointed time. However, all participants will need to register by simply clicking on the link provided below....
It is with gratitude and great joy that we announce that His Holiness, Pope Francis, has imparted his Apostolic Blessing to all participants in the Wordpriest Global Rosary Relay for the Sanctification of Priests, which takes place this year on June 19, 2020. We encourage all prayer locations to help spread this great news. Linked below is the letter received from the Cardinal Secretary of State, making this announcement.
Mary in the Catholic Press
Coronavirus: Kazakh Church Relies on Mary to Overcome Crisis (Zenit), May 8, 2020
Protection for the Kazakh people, for all those affected by Covid-19 and for health personnel engaged in the fight against the virus: this is what the Catholic faithful of Kazakhstan ask for by addressing and entrusting themselves to the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace and patroness of Kazakhstan.
This is what was reported to Agenzia Fides by Monsignor Adelio Dell’Oro, Bishop of Karaganda, where a special Marian prayer vigil was held in the cathedral on May 1: "After the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, I read an introduction to explain the reason for this prayer and the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus, just before dying, entrusts the apostle John to Mary. We recited three mysteries of the Rosary and then there was the act of consecration to the Virgin Mary. We used the text composed 25 years ago by the first bishop of Karaganda, Monsignor Jan Paweł Lenga: it was the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union and there was great poverty, so the bishop wanted to entrust the Country to Mary at the National Shrine of Oziornoje. It is a sacred place because in this area, during the Second World War, there were many Polish deportees who had no food and suffered from the cold. They prayed to the Virgin Mary with devotion and when the ice melted, a lake full of fish formed in the area and the deportees managed to overcome hunger." Today, the Church in Kazakhstan is asking again for that special protection from Our Lady....
Mary in the Secular Press
Prague erects replica of baroque Virgin Mary statue toppled in 1918 (The Guardian) June 4, 2020
A replica of a historic statue of the Virgin Mary has been restored to the spot in Prague where a revolutionary mob tore down the original more than a century ago.
It had been erected in 1652 to celebrate the victory of pro-Catholic Hapsburg forces over Sweden in the 30 years' war, but a group of radicals toppled it in November 1918 as the Hapsburg empire crumbled at the end of the first world war. The revolutionaries saw it as a symbol of Hapsburg oppression.
The sculptor, Petr Váňa, has finally realized his 25-year quest to return the Virgin Mary to her spot atop a 17-meter column in the Czech capital's Old Town Square, a magnet for tourists until coronavirus prompted the country to shut its borders in March....