On 1 October, between 700 and 1,000 children from schools and parishes in Rome will join the Holy Father in the Vatican Gardens, marking the beginning of the One Million Children Praying the Rosary (OMC) initiative promoted by Aid to the Church in Need
Pope Leo XIV will join hundreds of children in praying the Rosary for peace on October 1 at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens. The event will begin at 5:00 p.m., with the Pope joining the children later to pray the Rosary.
Between 700 and 1,000 children from schools and parishes in Rome are expected to attend. Together with the Holy Father, they will pray in spiritual union with children, families, schools and Christian communities around the world.
The gathering will mark the beginning of the worldwide week of prayer for the One Million Children Praying the Rosary initiative, promoted by the Pontifical Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for more than 20 years. This year, for the first time, the campaign will take place over an entire week, from October 1 to 7, allowing dioceses, parishes, schools, communities and families on different continents to choose the day best suited to their pastoral circumstances, while remaining united in the same intention of prayer for peace and unity.
The week will culminate on October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Canada: New Ambassadors Join OMC Campaign
Children across Canada are invited to visit the One Million Children Praying the Rosary landing page, where they can find resources to help them prepare a time of prayer and even make their own rosary. Organizers, pastoral workers and others involved in ministry will also find materials to help them organize a time of prayer with their group, school, parish or community.
As he did last year, Rémi, a young Catholic from the Sherbrooke city area, is inviting French-speaking children and youth from across Canada to take part in this international prayer initiative. “This year, we will pray especially for children who have been displaced or forced to flee their homes, as well as for their families,” he says in the 2026 video.
This year, Rémi is joined by two new Canadian ambassadors: Cecilia and Isaac, children from the Toronto area. They are inviting English-speaking children and youth across the country to join the international initiative. “The Rosary is powerful, and children can make a difference,” they say.
Watch and share!
French:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dcedj2pcjrg
English: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/H4ROQCveAQ8
Additional short videos related to the initiative are also available on the Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Canada YouTube channel.
For more information, please contact Valérie Vulcain at vv@acn-canada.org or 514-932-0552, ext. 227.
Children around the world united in prayer
While children in Rome pray with Pope Leo XIV, similar initiatives are already being prepared in many countries, from indigenous communities in the Bolivian Amazon to parishes in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and many other places affected by war, poverty or instability.
In Sudan, where an ongoing war continues to cause immense suffering, Fr Franck Mandozi of the Pastoral Region of Kosti has confirmed that children from several parishes and schools will take part.
Thousands of kilometres away, in a Tsimané indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon, Sister Patricia Alejandra Botello López says that children are already praying the Rosary in both T’siman and Spanish.
In Zimbabwe, St Christopher’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo will gather children on Sunday, October 4. In the weeks that follow, parish priest Fr Charles Mafurutu also intends to travel to remote communities and Mass centres scattered across the parish territory, some many kilometres away.
In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku plans to promote the initiative through its broadcasts and to transmit live the Rosary prayed by children at the parish of San Eugenio de Mazenod, inviting families, schools, parishes and catechists to join in prayer.
A prayer for a wounded world
The 2026 campaign is inspired by the message of Fatima:
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
In this year’s invitation to participants, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of 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 presents Mary as a model of faith, love and prayer.
The initiative takes on particular significance at a time when millions of people are facing war, violence, persecution, poverty and uncertainty.
In this context, the prayer of children is intended as a simple but universal sign of trust and hope: children of different languages, cultures and countries united in the same prayer for peace.
From a small group in Venezuela to a worldwide prayer movement
The One Million Children Praying the Rosary initiative began in Venezuela in 2005 and has gradually grown into a worldwide prayer movement involving children, families, parishes, schools and Church groups on every continent.
The campaign is inspired by the words attributed to Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina:
“When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.”
The invitation is not addressed only to children. ACN also encourages parents, teachers, priests, religious, catechists and families to pray with them. It is not necessary to pray the entire Rosary: even a single decade, prayed in faith, can become part of this worldwide chain of prayer.
ACN provides prayer materials and invites participants to register their participation, helping to make visible on a map the network of children joining the prayer in different countries.
The international initiative is organized in collaboration with the Shrine of Fatima, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the World Apostolate of Fatima. This year, World Rosary Day is also joining the campaign for the first time.
