For the 20^th anniversary of the One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign, Aid to the Church in Need is calling for prayers on October 7, “for peace and unity in a world wounded by division, conflict, and suffering.” In Canada, a 10-year-old ambassador is inviting all children to take part.

Children all over the world are once again being invited to participate in the annual One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign. The international event, organized by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), will take place during the first week of October.

This marks the twentieth consecutive year of the campaign, which began in 2005 as a small gathering in Venezuela. It was finally in 2023 that, for the very first time, more than one million children officially took part—a milestone that was matched again in 2024.

A young ambassador in Canada

A call to become an ambassador for the event was launched, and Rémi, 10 years old, responded positively. In a video, the young boy from Sherbrooke invites all children to take part.

“It’s good to pray for peace in the world, for wars to end because it’s not by seeking revenge that the wars are going to end,” he says.

Rémi, who has been participating in the event for several years, will be interviewed on ACN Canada’s program Vues d’ailleurs on Wednesday, September 17, at 9:30am on Radio VM.

The Canadian national office of ACN invites parishes, pastoral and catechetical groups, small Christian communities, Catholic schools, and all those who wish to take part in the event to visit the webpage https://acn-canada.org/one-million-children/. There, they will find materials for prayer, promoting the event, and much more. They can also register their participation on the international event page.

A “tidal wave of prayer”

Father Anton Lässer, ecclesiastical assistant at ACN International, hopes that the event will send “a tidal wave of prayer around the world, sprung from the hearts of children and uttered in childlike trust.”

For his part, the international president of ACN, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, stresses the importance of this year’s campaign, saying that it “responds to the ever-pressing yearning for peace and unity in a world wounded by division, conflict, and suffering.”

“In an age when prayerful silence is too often drowned out by the noise of the world, the Rosary offers an oasis of contemplation. It is neither a dry nor repetitive practice, but rather a gentle and strong path that leads us to the heart of the Gospel.”

The cardinal calls on all to participate with their children “wherever it is possible, so that the entire world may be embraced by this crown of light. Let us pray together that the bonds of ecclesial communion, both affective and effective, may be strengthened, and that the Holy Spirit may awaken in the hearts of the young a sincere desire for holiness.”

The inspiration for this initiative came from a saying attributed to the mystic Saint Padre Pio: “When a million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.” Fr. Anton Lässer stresses that “the prayers of children have a special power before God—a power that can breach walls, heal wounds, and bring light into the darkness.”

“The Holy Rosary is and always will be a tried and trusted way of hope for peace—a path we are currently walking with great faith, above all in the Church’s Jubilee Year of Hope,” writes the priest.