Greater N.O. area is a Rosary Congress role model

By Beth Donze, Clarion Herald

When the faithful flock to Our Lady of Divine Providence Church for the 28th annual Greater New Orleans Rosary Congress – a seamless week of hourly rosaries, special Masses, sacred music and perpetual adoration set for Oct. 6-12 – they will have the thrill of knowing that their witness to the prayer’s saving power has inspired Catholics in at least two other states to launch their own rosary gatherings.

Back in 2016 – at the 26th annual Rosary Congress at St. Clement of Rome Church – two women from the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio, were in the pews observing the 24/7 event, attended by an estimated 1,500 people over the course of the week.

One of the women, who was moved to tears when she heard an elementary school choir present the rosary through song, immediately phoned Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton to ask if their home diocese might mount a similar gathering the following October. Within a week, Bishop Monforton challenged three Steubenville parishes to hold a rosary congress in their respective churches.

The other visitor from Steubenville – Peggy Downs – was so impressed with the prayerful fervor on display at St. Clement, she began contacting friends throughout the country to urge them to plan their own congresses. One of those friends – Maryland resident Kristin Bird – took the idea to Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, who agreed to hold rosary congresses at a whopping seven parishes in his archdiocese in 2017.

“I really see Louisiana as the mustard seed,” said Bird, 57, crediting New Orleans’ example for last year’s nationwide spurt in rosary congresses. A total of 18 were held in 10 dioceses in 2017.

Faithful flow in and out

The focus of this year’s Greater New Orleans Rosary Congress will be “Life, Reparation and Peace in Our City, Nation and World,” said local congress coordinator Marie Wojdac. It will kick off with a rosary procession in front of Our Lady of Divine Providence Church, 8617 West Metairie Ave., Metairie, on Saturday, Oct. 6 at 2:30 p.m. The opening Mass will follow at 4 p.m.

“What we try to do here in the New Orleans area is show the beauty and diversity of our Catholic faith. We want to honor God as much as we can,” Wojdac said, adding that, as always, a wide range of music and Mass themes will enhance prayer and worship throughout the seven days.

Children’s choirs from archdiocesan schools will perform at the daytime Masses, and adult choirs will lift worship at the evening Masses. The congress’ noon Masses attract about 300 people, and its evening Masses even more as people filter into church after work, Wojdac said.

“New Orleans has the most beautiful choirs,” she marveled. “What amazes me is to see so many people coming in and out of church – coming to church when their schedules permit – in this constant flow of people.”

The rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet will be prayed every hour, on the hour, throughout the seven-day gathering, except during Masses and special events. The Rosary Congress also offers perpetual eucharistic adoration over the seven days, with the Divine Praises offered 15 minutes before all Masses.

Between the hourly rosaries, congregants will be given quiet time for prayer and reflection. The sacrament of reconciliation will be available one hour before the start of each liturgy.

A new feature this year will take place on Oct. 7 at 3 p.m., when the rosary will be recited by Catholics in all 50 states. A silver rose from the Knights of Columbus, representing Our Lady of Guadalupe, will serve as a prayer aide during this national rosary hour, Wojdac said.

A local event since 1990

The origins of the Rosary Congress stretch back to the pontificate of St. John Paul II, when the Catholic faithful of Poland gathered in 1979 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa for seven days and nights of adoration and rosaries in the prayerful hope that the Communist government of the time would allow the pope to visit his home country.

“On the last day of that first Rosary Congress, the sanctions were dropped by the government and the pope was allowed to come into Poland. Their prayers made a big difference,” said Wojdac, counting the subsequent fall of Communism and the tightening of Poland’s once loose abortion laws among the rosary’s miracles.

Inspired by Poland’s prayer effort, an American named John Downs, Peggy Downs’ late uncle, brought the idea home to the United States in 1988, with the event taking place at Washington, D.C.’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for five straight years.

While Downs and his fellow organizers helped spread rosary congresses to Texas, Louisiana and New York in the 1990s, it lapsed everywhere except Louisiana, Wojdac said.

“It stayed here. It’s been here for 28 years,” she said.

One of the fruits of the local rosary gatherings emerged early on. On the very last day of first Greater New Orleans Rosary Congress in 1990 – at the Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on State Street – the oldest abortion clinic in the city closed its doors.

“That encouraged us to keep going,” Wojdac said.

Bird, who traveled to New Orleans last summer to consult with Wojdac in advance of the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s second annual Rosary Congress effort, said last year’s prayer gatherings included lapsed Catholics and those who had been away from the sacrament of confession for as many as 30 years. Initial worries that no one would want to come to one of the congress sites – Baltimore’s Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother – because of nighttime parking worries, were soon allayed, Bird said. Thousands came to pray over the course of the week at the basilica and at six other sites.

“(The basilica’s rector) had people coming in from out of state to stay in hotels to fill the holy hours,” Bird said. “It was so amazing!”

For more information on the Greater New Orleans Rosary Congress, turn to page 5 of the Clarion Herald or call Marie Wojdac at 508-7100. More on the National Rosary Congress movement can be found at www.rosarycongress.org. A video on the topic can be found at https://youtu.be/fKB9Mqf1ygc.

Beth Donze can be reached at [email protected].

SCHEDULE FOR 2018 GREATER NEW ORLEANS ROSARY CONGRESS

ALL EVENTS  TAKE PLACE AT OUR LADY OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE CHURCH, 8617 WEST METAIRIE AVE., METAIRIE

Saturday, Oct. 6

10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.   Mass, Prayers, Adoration – First Saturday

Prayer Warriors of St. Joan of Arc

2:30 p.m.   Rosary Procession and Crowning of Mary

Our Lady of Divine Providence Church

4:00 p.m.   Opening Mass with Banner Procession

Rev. Michael Mitchell

Music: Our Lady of Divine Providence Choir

6:00 p.m.   Spanish Mass – Rev. Tom Stehlik, C.M.

                                         After Mass: Exposition of Blessed Sacrament

 

Sunday, Oct. 7

8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m.   Our Lady of Divine Providence Church – Masses

3:00 p.m.                     “Rosary Coast to Coast” – Silver Rose of K.C.

                                                      Music led OSC – Work of the Holy Angels

6:00 p.m.   Youth Mass – Rev. B. Chukwuma

                                                      Music: St. Mary’s Dominican Liturgical Choir

 

Monday, Oct. 8

12:00 Noon                 Mass – Rev. Joseph Doyle, S.S.J.

Music: St. Pius X Children’s Choir

7:00 p.m.   Music: St. Philip Neri Adult Choir

7:30 p.m.   Mass – Rev. David Begany, S.S.J.

 

 

Tuesday, Oct. 9

12:00 Noon                 Mass – Rev. Sidney Speaks

Music: Our Lady of Perpetual Help Children’s Choir

6:00 p.m.   Live Radio Rosary – WVOG 600 AM

(Holy Name Society)

7:00 p.m.   Music: the Contemporaries Choir

7:30 p.m.   Mass Honoring the Family – Most Rev. Roger Morin

Bishop Emeritus of the Biloxi Diocese

 

Wednesday, Oct. 10

10:30 a.m. St. Michaels Special School Bell Choir

12:00 Noon                 Mass – Rev. Minh Phan

                                                      Music: St. Louis King of France Children Choir

7:00 p.m.   Music: Blessed Francis Seelos Hispanic Choir

7:30 p.m.   Mass Hispanic/English – Rev. José Lavastida, S.T.D.

 

Thursday, Oct. 11

12:00 Noon                 Mass – Rev. Frank Candalisa 

Music: St. Christopher School Choir

7:00 p.m.                     Music: Our Lady of Rosary Parish Choir

7:30 p.m.   Mass – Rev. Jonathan Hemelt

Followed by Outdoor Candlelight Eucharistic Procession

Heralded by Charlie Monnot, Trumpeter

 

Friday, Oct. 12 

12:00 Noon                 Mass – Rev. Mariano Veliz, O.P.

Music: St. Dominic Children’s Choir

7:00 p.m.                     Music: Tongues of Fire

7:30 p.m.   Healing Mass – Rev. Anthony Odiong

                                    Followed by Healing Service