Public Square Rosary Rally

America Needs Fatima - Rosary Rally banner for 2015

Today I attended a "rosary rally." I had a devil of a time finding one near me. The event is sponsored by the organization America Needs Fatima. However, it seems like the institutional RC Church (where I live at least) is pretty ambivalent about the rosary in general and ANF in particular.

I searched all the websites and bulletins of the RC churches (about half dozen) in my town but found not a trace of a rosary event. ANF has a page on their website for the Rosary Rally but has no information about the location or contact information. So I emailed ANF and they replied with a church over 50 miles away. On my second try, they gave me the phone number of a "captain" closer to home. But when I called, the woman told me that she had told ANF in August that she couldn't do it this year because she was having surgery.

In my determination to find a rally, The rally is traditionally held on the Saturday closest to the anniversary of  Our Lady of Fatima's Miracle of the Sun (October 13th). This year it is Saturday October 10th (which is also the anniversary of my First Holy Communion). I spent at least an hour this morning, hunting via Google, trying to find at least a hint of a rally near to me.

Having identified a couple possibilities that were on my way to the Fly-In, I proceeded anxiously, hoping that the information I had stumbled upon was correct.

I ended up at St. Stanislaus in South Meriden. (The odd thing as I write this several weeks later is that I can't find any notice of the event; the preceding Sunday bulletin for 10/04/15) has no notice of a rosary event for Saturday 10/10/15). While I was glad to be able to join in, I quickly saw that my apprehensions were justified: this event confirmed to me that the RC Church in the US is dead.

My expectations were for simply praying the rosary aloud in a public place as a display of faith and hope and witness. However, this group's vision was an elaborate outdoor ritual. Sadly (but not surprisingly) attendance was sparse: several older women, me (the only man), a young woman (mother?) and a small gaggle of elementary school kids (or younger).

The person that appeared to be running the show (and it was) was a butch-looking woman dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and ball cap, with close-cropped hair. Perhaps she was a (former?) nun. No one really said anything to me other than responding with affirmation that this was the Rosary Rally. Butch insisted on playing some horrid recording of music periodically throughout the show. There was a program but no one offered me one. The children sat mutely on metal chairs in a circle holding a rope with balloons shaped into a rosary. For some reason, the prayer leader (Butch) did not recite any mysteries of the rosary.

The performance was punctuated with seemingly every sort of rosary related prayer. These took longer than the rosary. I had to chuckle when during a litany, the young woman stumbled tellingly over the pronunciation of the word "chaste" as if she was totally unfamiliar with it.

To my astonishment and horror, at the end of the ceremony, the children moved into a nearby open space and launched the rosary into the heavens. I held my breath as it climbed past the power lines and then the trees. Overhead, I could see small private air planes which I assumed were associated with the Fly-In at the nearby airport. My fear was that this rosary balloon assemblage would bring down one of the planes. I assume that didn't happen because I did not come across any such report or similar.

I later learned that this even had occurred on the paved over ruins of the former parish priests home. In addition, I also learned that the diocese had recently closed the school across the street. Death was all around. I felt sad and disappointed. Here was another RC parish that was fading away. It couldn't even muster up a decent group to proclaim the rosary in public on a gorgeous day with very pleasant weather.

This was the second year in a row where I had tried to find a nearby public rosary rally but was disappointed in the pathetic response. To me, this is an indictment against Catholics in Name Only (CINO). While today's little group deserves credit for taking action, it grieves me that the turnout was so small and no sign of a priest. My God, my God, why have you foresaken us? {Ps 22:1(2)}

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Links:

https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Public-Square-Rosary-Rallies/public-square-rosary-rallies.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun
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Written Sunday November 8 & Friday November 20, 2015