PHL students join 'One Million Children Praying the Rosary'

More than 1,200 students gathered together on Thursday to join the campaign called "One Million Children Praying the Rosary," according to a report on State of the Nation with Jessica Soho.

With October, which Catholics celebrate the month of the Holy Rosary, the students from the Kindergarten level to Senior High School prayed the rosary.

The rosary is a form of prayer in which five decades of Hail Marys are repeated, each decade preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be.

The devotion is also a reflection on important events in the life of Jesus Christ and His Mother.

The rosary campaign, which is organized by the Aid to the Church in need group, is a global campaign that started in 2005 in Venezuela with children praying the rosary and woman recalled a promise by Saint Padre Pio, “When a million children pray the Rosary, then the world will change.”

Before the activity, officials played videos of children refugees in Aleppo in Syria, youth group on Korea and Christian evacuees in Marawi City.

According to a report posted on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news website, thousands of children from around 1,200 parishes and 700 schools from 41 dioceses have joined the initiative.

But the highlight of the event was in Navotas where children who have been orphaned or are without a breadwinner led the prayer.

Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of the Diocese of Kalookan, which covers Navotas, said the number of orphans and widows is increasing everyday in a war where “children suffer the most”.

“They don’t understand what’s happening. It’s so heartbreaking,” said David.

There were teenagers killed in Caloocan in the past year, namely Kian de los Santos and Gian Carlos Arnaiz. — BAP, GMA News