‘Rosary bishop’ says Pope Francis’ May prayer marathon feels like ‘divine confirmation’

A Catholic bishop known for his energetic promotion of the rosary has said that Pope Francis’ announcement of a global prayer marathon, starting Saturday, felt like a “divine confirmation.”

Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland, told CNA April 28 that the papal initiative mirrored a rosary campaign that has taken place across Britain since 2018.

“Hearing the pope’s announcement felt like a sort of divine confirmation that we had been doing what the Lord wanted and what Our Lady had inspired in us,” said Keenan, who has been dubbed “the rosary bishop.”

The pope will lead a rosary on May 1 at the start of a month-long prayer marathon for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rosary will be broadcast live from the Gregorian Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica at 6 p.m. Rome time.

“I was delighted and really encouraged with Pope Francis’ request for Catholics around the world to pray the rosary daily in the month of May,” Keenan said.

“This is what we ourselves had been doing, starting three years ago, with our month of May rosary around the British Isles.”

The papal rosary kicks off a month of daily rosaries prayed at Catholic shrines around the world.

Keenan said: “The pope has even got involved 30 Marian shrines around the world to live stream their rosary so that the faithful could pray along from home online which, again, is exactly what we had been doing together with our Marian shrines across England, Wales and Scotland.”

“We had got the idea from Poland, which has passed it onto Ireland, and from there it spread to us in Britain, to the USA, Australia, and Africa.”

“Our prayer for faith is inspired by the message of Our Lady at Fatima, which is for a spirit of repentance to fall on us so that we can recognize the great refusal of God in our world and face up to the lack of fervor in so much of the Church and, in this way, open ourselves up to an outpouring of God’s mercy.”

“The first preaching of Jesus was to repent so as to really believe and take hold of the power of the Good News. For love and life, we are praying for our world to return and uphold the holiness of marriage and the sanctity of human life.”

He added: “And we see peace as the fruit of this return to God, as promised by Our Lady at Fatima who promised, ‘In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph … and a certain period of peace will be granted to the world.’”