From Rome to the world: Children unite in a week of prayer for peace

From October 1 to 7, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is inviting children, families, schools, and parishes around the world to take part in “One Million Children Praying the Rosary.” This year, the initiative will unfold as a worldwide week of prayer, beginning with a vigil in Rome on October 1 and culminating on October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

From communities in the Bolivian Amazon to parishes in Sudan, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone, preparations are already under way for this year’s “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign.

One of the new features of the 2026 initiative is that it is being organized as a week of prayer, from October 1 to 7. This will allow dioceses, parishes, schools, communities, and families in different parts of the world to choose the day that best fits their pastoral and local circumstances, while remaining united around the same intentions of peace and unity.

The week will open on October 1 with a prayer vigil in Rome and will culminate on Wednesday, October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

This year’s campaign is inspired by the message of Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” In the invitation to take part in the initiative, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International and Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, recalls that the Immaculate Heart of Mary represents a life entirely open to the Holy Spirit and points to Mary as a model of faith, love, and prayer.

The invitation also places the campaign against the background of a world marked by conflict and suffering, recalling Christ’s words in the Gospel of John: “In the world, you will have trouble. But take courage; I have overcome the world.” It speaks of the realities experienced today in so many countries: violence, war, poverty, and real tribulation, but also the extraordinary consolation that can arise through prayer.

The responses already reaching ACN show what this worldwide chain of prayer can look like in very different parts of the world.

In Sudan, where war continues to inflict enormous suffering on the population, Fr. Franck Mandozi from the Pastoral Region of Kosti has confirmed that children from different parishes and schools will take part: “Indeed, Sudan and many parts of the world are in need of the intercession of Our Lady for peace in the world. With this in mind, we shall encourage children in our different parishes and schools” to participate in the campaign, he wrote to ACN.

Thousands of miles away, in a T’siman indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon, Sister Patricia Alejandra Botello López says that the Rosary is already being prayed with children in both T’siman and Spanish.

“We have already been praying it in both T’siman and Spanish since before May 13 because of the dramatic situation we have been experiencing in Bolivia for months, but now we will strengthen this prayer so that we can unite spiritually with you,” she told ACN.

In Zimbabwe, St. Christopher’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo will gather children on Sunday, October 4. But for parish priest Fr. Charles Mafurutu, the initiative will not end there. In the weeks that follow, he hopes to travel to remote communities and Mass centers scattered across the parish, some many miles away, to bring together children and pray the Rosary with them for peace.

In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku plans not only to promote the campaign over the airwaves, as it has done for several years, but also to broadcast live the Rosary prayed by children at the parish of San Eugenio de Mazenod and to invite families, parishes, schools, and catechists to join in.

Similar messages have reached ACN from Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone, among other countries. They come from places with very different realities but share the same conviction: at a time when the needs facing so many people are immense, prayer is not something secondary but necessary.

The campaign is inspired by the words attributed to Saint Padre Pio: “When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.” It began in Venezuela in 2005 and has since developed into a worldwide prayer movement involving families, parishes, schools, and children’s groups on every continent.

The campaign invites adults not only to encourage children to pray, but to pray with them. As the invitation letter emphasizes, whether children pray alone or together, whether they pray the whole Rosary or only one mystery, every prayer has value. The Rosary, it says, leads children with Mary into the life of Jesus, while their prayer has a particular strength because it is simple, trusting, and open to the grace of God.

ACN provides prayer materials to help children, families, schools, and parishes take part in the campaign. Participants are invited to register their prayer so that, once again, the map can gradually show children from different countries joining one another in prayer for peace.

This year, World Rosary Day joins the campaign for the first time, alongside long-standing partners the Shrine of Fatima, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, and the World Apostolate of Fatima.

– María Lozano