This was the 20th edition of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN’)’s One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign.
Pope Leo XIV kept up the tradition of his predecessor, Pope Francis, by promoting the One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign, organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), on social media,with a post reading: “As we contemplate with Mary the mysteries of Christ our Saviour, let us deepen our prayer for peace, which should become concrete solidarity with people tormented by war. I thank the many children around the world who are praying the #Holy Rosary for this intention. #1MillionChildrenPraying @ACN_int.”
According to statistics gathered by ACN, almost 500,000 children, from 111 countries, were officially registered online by October 8, 2025. However, previous experience shows that many groups, families and individuals around the world take part in the campaign without registering online, so the full number is likely to far exceed that.
In Canada, more than 3,200 children—both young and old—took part in the event. “We would like to thank Rémi, who was our ambassador this year. He even led the Rosary prayer evening in his parish,Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours, in Sherbrooke. It’s very inspiring to see children like Rémi who still believe in prayer, especially the Rosary. From the entire team at ACN Canada, dear Rémi: thank you!” said Valérie Vulcain, coordinator of One Million Children Praying the Rosary in Canada. She adds: “Starting today, if any children want to be ambassadors for One Million Children in Canada, they can contact me: vv@acn-canada.org. We’re already preparing for next year!” she said.
Testimonies have been pouring into ACN International from several countries on every continent, with moving testimonies from participants. One parish in the Diocese of Lichinga, Mozambique—a country that has been suffering from an Islamist insurgency for seven years—gathered 100 young people to pray for peace in their country and others. “The children were very interested. We had met with them twice before, to prepare them. Many of the children didn’t know about the Rosary or had never prayed it, so the initiative was the first of many opportunities to pray the Rosary with them in the future,” the parish said, in an email.
The Diocese of Jalingo, Nigeria, also wrote, explaining that “on this feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary, the children of our diocese have also joined in the prayer campaign of One Million Children Praying the Rosary. This was done in parishes, chaplaincies, and pastoral areas across our diocese. We also added holy hour adoration to the Blessed Sacrament as pilgrims of hope among the peoples. May God hear our prayers and grant us unity and peace in our troubled world.”
Poland was the country with most participants in this edition of the campaign, totalling over 86,000, followed by Brazil with almost 50,000. The Philippines and Slovakia also had over 40,000 participants each. The United Kingdom had over 35,000, and Hungary and Portugal had over 25,000 each.
The USA doubled its official participation this year, reaching 22,000. Despite more modest numbers, the participation of countries such as Cuba (600 participants), Haiti (500 participants), Liberia or Algeria, with 100 participants each, show the global reach of this campaign.
For more information on the campaign, and a full listing of official numbers, visit ACN’s website and check out the interactive map.
