‘50 Rosaries for 50 days’

Fr. Patrick Peyton’s Family Rosary Crusade (FRC) will celebrate its 50th year of ministry in the Philippines with a major campaign to promote its mission.

The project, called "50 Rosaries for 50 Days" will encourage families, communities, church-based organizations and other interested groups to pray for 50 consecutive days from March 25 to May 13.

The idea is to bring back the glory and tradition of praying the rosary, once a popular and favorite daily activity of the predominantly Catholic Filipino population, the Archdiocesan Office of Communications (AOC) said in a statement.

For its golden jubilee, FRC seeks to carry on for the next 50 years the continuing evangelization of Filipinos through the family rosary and the affirmation of the truth in its founder, Peyton’s famous slogan, "The family that prays together stays together."

March 25 marks the solemnity of the Annunciation and May 13 commemorates the day the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

May 13 also falls a day before the national elections.

"Fifty Rosaries for 50 Days" will also feature 50 families, including former President Corazon Aquino, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines President (CBCP) Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, Imelda Cojuangco, Howard Dee, Leon Hontiveros, Bel Cunanan, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) National Chairman Joe Concepcion, Johnny Delgado, Laurice Guillen, Anita Meily, Mon Pedrosa, and others praying the rosary at exactly 10:25 to 10:30 a.m., televised beginning March 25 on ABS-CBN. They will be inviting the audience to follow their lead.

FRC also mounted a live telethon special yesterday, on ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel. For two hours, viewers were asked to call through eight telephone lines and commit their respective pledges to pray the rosary daily for 50 days. – Sandy Araneta