ONE MILLION CHILDREN PRAYING THE ROSARY For unity and peace on the 7th of October 2025. The Pontifical Foundation, Aid to the Church in Need, invites you to join the prayer campaign.
Download the One Million Children Praying the Rosary Prayer Kit for your school or family now for free.
Dear teachers and all friends of children around the world,
In today’s world – marked for so many of us by anxiety, fear and insecurity – the papal charity Aid to the Church in Need Ireland is inviting you this year – for the 20th year running – to join in the wonderful worldwide prayer campaign A million children praying the Rosary.
Once again, we are calling on children in every continent to join together – in the first week of October, and especially on October 7, the Feast of the Holy Rosary – and pray the simple but powerful prayer of the Rosary for peace. 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 trust, above all in this the Church’s Jubilee Year of Hope.
We know the old tradition that the prayer of children finds a privileged hearing in the sight of God, especially perhaps since it flows from pure hearts and childlike trust. St Thérèse of Lisieux, a model of childlike faith, describes prayer like this: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned towards heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.” This is exactly what happens when children pray the Rosary. They open their hearts to Jesus, to Mary and to all this wounded world.
A million children praying the Rosary is an initiative inspired in part by the wonderful words of St Padre Pio who said, “When a million children pray the Rosary, then the world will change.” For the prayers of children have a special power before God – a power that can breach walls, heal wounds and bring light into the darkness.
What began in the year 2005 with a small children’s prayer group in Venezuela, has now – with the support of ACN and many other committed Catholics – become a worldwide movement. The number of people who share the conviction that children’s prayers can change the world has grown remarkably over the past 20 years. And today, the prayers of the children are a visible sign that the Church is marching forward, united, confident and filled with hope in the power of God in this world. The children praying the Rosary are little pilgrims of hope, walking with Mary and Jesus through the central mysteries of the Christian faith and bringing hope to their families, their countries and to our times.
With a conviction born of the very positive experience of previous years in many different countries, we would urge you also to join in with this task – not an easy one it might outwardly seem – and with creative initiatives encourage our children to pray the Rosary, in schools, in the family, in parishes, or simply by praying it with them yourselves. Of course, ACN will be delighted to provide resources about how to pray the Rosary and special Rosary beads for the children.
Whether we pray alone or in a group, whether we pray the whole Rosary or just one decade, every prayer is precious!
Please help us during this Jubilee Year to send a tidal wave of prayer around the world, sprung from the hearts of children and uttered in childlike trust – together with Mary the Mother of Hope at their side.
If you would like to be involved or to register your school, please email me brandon.scott@acnireland.org for further information.
Thank you for your commitment, and with every good wish and blessing!
Brandon Scott - Promotions and Communications Officer
ACN Ireland
