Pope Leo XIV centered his intervention this Sunday after the Regina Caeli prayer on an explicit call to recover the Rosary prayer, on the occasion of the start of the month of May, traditionally dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The Pontiff encouraged the faithful to “renew the joy of gathering as a Church” to pray this Marian prayer, emphasizing its communal dimension in a context marked by the need for unity and peace. In this sense, he evoked the image of the first disciples gathered in the Upper Room with the Virgin Mary, between the Ascension and Pentecost, as a reference to a Church that prays united in expectation of the Holy Spirit.
The Pope’s invitation is framed in a practice rooted in Catholic tradition, which links the month of May with an intensification of Marian devotion, especially through the prayer of the Rosary both in the family setting and in parish communities.
Along with this exhortation, Leo XIV entrusted to the prayer of the faithful his intentions, with a specific mention of communion within the Church and peace in the world, in line with the intercessory character traditionally attributed to this prayer.
In the same context, the Pope also remembered the journalists who have lost their lives in conflicts and situations of violence, denouncing violations of press freedom in various parts of the world. Nevertheless, it was the call to recover the Rosary as a living practice in the Church that marked the central axis of his intervention at the beginning of this Marian month.