(6 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vatican City – 4 March 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Sister Maria Agnese Nguyen holding up her rosary
2. Close of rosary beads
3. Sisters walking to evening rosary prayer for Pope Francis in St. Peter’ Square
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Trisha Thomas, The Associated Press:
"For over a week now, cardinals from the Roman Curia have been leading rosary prayers here in Saint Peter’s Square every evening. They’re praying for Pope Francis, who’s in a hospital on the other side of Rome, struggling with pneumonia in both his lungs. It’s at moments like this that Catholics turn to the rosary. They hold the rosary beads in their hands and finger them as they repeat over and over again the Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer. We have followed groups of nuns who’ve been saying the rosary here and under the Pope’s windows at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome. They explained to us that doing the rosary is a prayer to the Virgin Mary, who they see as a gentle mother who is likely to listen to their prayers and help them. In addition, they say that Pope Francis is particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary. In fact, he’s asked to be buried outside the Vatican walls at the Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome, underneath an icon of the Virgin Mary."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome – 18 February 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
5. Wide of Gemelli Hospital where Pope Francis is recovering on 10th floor
6. Windows at the hospital
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rome – 3 March 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
7. Sister Daura Guede from Brazil holding her rosary beads outside Gemelli hospital
8. Close of rosary beads
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vatican City – 4 March 2025
++NIGHT SHOTS++
9. Nuns at rosary prayer
10. Close of rosary beads in hands of nun
11. Various of sister Maria Agnese Nguyen during rosary prayer
12. Cardinal on knees praying during evening rosary prayer
13. Moon over cupola on St. Peter’s Basilica
STORYLINE:
As Pope Francis remains hospitalized in Rome thousands of faithful from around the world have been gathering by St. Peter’s and by the hospital to pray the rosary for him.
Since February 24th, the Cardinals of the Roman Curia have been leading the faithful in the rosary prayer every evening in St. Peter’s Square.
Dating back to the Middle Ages and popularized in the 16th century, the chain of beads that comprises a rosary is one of the most visible symbols of Christianity – handheld by young and old, hanging from monks’ belts, draped around rearview mirrors in vehicles, crafted in precious stones, olive tree wood from the Holy Land or cheap, even gaudy plastic.
Repetitive prayer exists across multiple faiths. For Catholics, the rosary consists of reciting one “Our father” and ten “Hail Mary” prayers, five times over – starting each “decade” with a brief meditation on different mysteries about the life of Jesus and Mary.
They vary depending on the day of the week – from “glorious” ones like Mary’s assumption to “sorrowful” ones like Jesus climbing the Calvary hill.
The prayer can be done individually or in group, as it has been done for the Pope, at home or on pilgrimage on in churches.
The Basilica in Lourdes, France, one of the most popular sites of pilgrimage in Europe, is dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, the origin of the images of Mary holding the rosary.
It’s long been a tradition in many countries to pray the rosary for the ill. With the evening rosaries in St. Peter’s Square, many were reminded of the somber vigils held when St. John Paul II was hospitalized at the end of his papacy in 2005.
AP Video by Francesca Primavilla and Silvia Stellacci
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Author: AP Archive
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