The Bay Area Rosary Rally on Oct. 12 united local Catholics from nearly a dozen ethnic cultures in a day dedicated to “Our Lady Who Unites All Peoples.”
The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption was a visual display of unified Marian devotion as members of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino, Nigerian, Black Catholic, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Myanmar, Korean, Polish/Slavic, Arab-American and Maronite communities arrived in native dress. This was the first year that the Rosary Rally was combined with the Mass for All Immigrants under the theme chosen by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.
“The Archdiocese of San Francisco is a microcosm of the Catholic Church, united by the same teachings of our Lord and worship amidst our diverse tongues and cultures,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a welcome message in the event program. He added that the theme, “Our Lady Who Unites All Peoples,” reflected “our love and concern for all immigrants in our Archdiocese,” as well a response to Pope Francis’ invitation at the 110th World Day for Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 29. The multilingual “Mass of the Americas” liturgy reflected the theme.
Different ethnic groups were represented in those leading five decades of the rosary and in reading the Prayers of the Faithful. (Photo by Dennis Callahan/Archdiocese of San Francisco)
The day formally began with a Rosary talk by Dominican Father Michael Hurley, followed by the recitation of the rosary in different languages.
The five decades of the rosary were led by representatives of five ethnic groups and said in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Igbo, the language of Nigeria.
Father Michael addressed the nearly full cathedral in a talk detailing the rosary’s “development and fruitfulness” in five different moments in history, what he called the “history mysteries.”
“My goal is very, very direct and simple,” he said. “My job today is to inspire you to pray the rosary,” he said. “That’s it.”
He offered the perspective of someone who himself once felt that praying the rosary every day seemed like, “a lot.”
“It takes about 14-15 minutes to pray five decades of the rosary,” he said, or about one percent of the day. “I’m not a math person, but if you can’t give one percent of the day to the Lord, if you can’t spend one percent of the day meditating on the incarnation, the salvation, suffering, passion and death and the glory which is our destiny, what are you doing?”
Father Hurley used the physical rosary with its beads of Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s as a metaphor for Christian unity.
“What unites them is the core, the rope, the string,” he said. “Our Lady is like that core. She’s like the string that unites all peoples together to bring them reliably to her Son.”
The Rosary Rally Mass was the Mass of the Americas, a twin liturgical tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception conceived by Archbishop Cordileone and composed and directed by Frank La Rocca for the first time six years ago. The Mass features sacred music in Spanish, Latin, English, and Nahuatl, the Aztec language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego.
In his homily, the Archbishop noted the intermittent roar of the Blue Angels’ U.S. Navy jet performances outside, and applied it to our faith. “We have the certain hope that on this day we will be accompanied by angels,” he said. “It might seem ironic, maybe even verging on blasphemous, that the name of a celestial being would be applied to such a forceful instrument of war. Let us recall, though, what those who serve our nation in the Armed Forces do for us: they protect us from enemies who are trying to harm us. Is this not exactly what the angels do for us?…”
From the Archdiocese of San Francisco
I attended. The entire event celebrated our universal Catholic heritage. With Knights of Peter Claver and Knights of Columbus joining religious sisters in leading the full Cathedral in procession, our City represented its best. Our Archbishop preached on the respect and support for immigrants and refugees that is integral to Catholic social teaching.
Not if the immigrants are illegal, which they almost all are nowadays. Why are bishops afraid to tell illegals to go back home to their own country? The same reason they are afraid to stand up to gays. They are cowards.
You can find funny YouTube videos of people carrying those statues of Mary and then things go horribly wrong when the statue falls off the platform.
There is nothing funny about sacred things being destroyed. Go make your comment on a Buddhist, Jewish or Islamic website and see how they like it.
I’m tired of these immigrant and ethnic Masses. The reason they combined the rosary rally with the illegal immigrant Mass is because otherwise they’d have a hard time getting people to attend either. Two attendance birds with one stone, in other words.
Focusing on ethnic differences is dividing our country. Does any diocese have an American Mass? A Mass for white people? No. Immigrant and ethnic Masses are just as stupid and misguided.
So that light-skin lady in the crowd with red hair and the one with light brown or blond hair do not count as “white”? and those priests in front who could be of Germany, Polish, French, northern Italian, Slavic or Maronite descent do not count as “white”? I hate to tell you, but all the churches in the United States from the beginning, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or whatever, were started by people of certain ethnic groups mostly. Greek, Russian, Jerusalem, Armenian, etc., Orthodox. Lutherans, mostly German. Amish, mostly German. Episcopalians, started by the English. Coptic, mostly northern African. Would you like to me to go on?
And I am not for illegal immigration. Coming here legally protects immigrants and citizens. Many brought over here illegally are forced into the sex trade and other horrible situations, and some illegals prey on decent people, whether immigrant or citizen. Nevertheless, we are always going to have ethnic neighborhoods, always have had them and always will. People do need to learn the primary language of the country in which they work or become citizens. I posted this as a reply to the poster called “tired”. The post like this one below, was a mistake. Editor, please delete it if you can, to leave more space for others.
Thank you for this wonderful positive article. The Rosary Priest Father Patrick Peyton said, “A world at prayer is a world at peace.” He also said, “A family that prays together stays together “
I’m just so glad I don’t live in San Francisco. I used to live in Alameda, and that was close enough. Now I live thousands of miles away. Thank God.