Pope Leo XIV Prays with a Million Children Worldwide and says "we love you, Jesus and Mary, and tonight we ask you for a special gift: peace for all the children of the world" at Vatican Rosary - FULL TEXT + Video
Pope Leo XIV prays the rosary with children in the Grotto of Lourdes in the Vatican Gardens. Present there are 1,300 people—700 of whom are children—to join Pope Leo in praying the Rosary in five languages, offering up the Marian prayer for an end to violence around the world. While one million children around the world offered up the Rosary for peace, about 1,300 of those voices were coming from the Vatican Gardens on the first day of the month dedicated to the Rosary—October 1. Children from parishes and schools around Rome gathered at the Grotto of Lourdes with Pope Leo XIV to kick off the Aid to the Church in Need initiative “One Million Children Praying the Rosary”.
Representing the global dimension of this initiative, each of the five decades was recited in a different language: Italian, Spanish, Urdu, German, and Arabic. This rosary starts a weeklong initiative drawing attention to “the wounds and hopes of peoples” globally—the children of Ukraine and all the victims of war; families in Lebanon, Syria, and the Holy Land; persecuted Christians in Pakistan and around the world; reconciliation in South Sudan; and families in Cuba and Venezuela.
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens
Thursday, October 1, 2026
__________________
Good evening everyone! Good evening and welcome!
I thank His Eminence Cardinal Koch for his greeting, and the Aid to the Church in Need Foundation for promoting this initiative and for the great work it does. I thank everyone present for being here, especially you children, along with your parents and other family members, the priests, and all those accompanying you.
I'm really happy to be with you! And you guys, tell me: are you happy? Are you happy to be here? [ Yes! ].
I'm happy. Especially because this evening we've gathered to be together with the two people who love us more than anyone else. Do you know who they are? [ They answer: Jesus ] Jesus, and who else? [ Mary ] And Mary. The Lord Jesus and his mother Mary, who never leave us alone and who are always close to us.
We love them too, right? [ Yes! ] Do we want to say it? Let's try. Let's repeat together: I LOVE YOU, JESUS [ they repeat ]. I LOVE YOU, MARY [ they repeat ].
Yes, we love you, Jesus and Mary, and tonight we ask you for a special gift: peace for all the children of the world, especially those who live where there is war, in many countries of the earth.
We do this with the prayer of the Holy Rosary , which is a simple prayer that everyone can recite. We have already made the gesture of offering flowers, a sign of love. Soon we will light some candles and think of Jesus in some important moments of his life, in which he brought light and peace to so many people: when he was baptized in the Jordan River, when he transformed water into wine at the wedding at Cana, when he announced his Kingdom, when he showed his glory on Mount Tabor, and when, in the Cenacle, during the Last Supper, he left us the Eucharist. These are moments in which he gave us wonderful gifts, not to be forgotten, and for this we want to say thank you. Let us do this together, once again. Let us all say it: THANK YOU, JESUS! [ they repeat ]. And let us ask him with trust, all together: GIVE US PEACE! [ they repeat ]
And I want to tell you one last thing: this evening and these days, we are not alone in praying. Throughout the world, a million children are praying with us. A million! Just think: fifty million "Hail Marys" rising to Heaven from every corner and in every language on earth, asking for peace, and uniting as in a single, enormous rosary, to embrace and bind together all the continents, races, and nations of the planet.
Here, dear children, today we pray with all these friends. And in doing so, we also commit ourselves to being good and behaving well—at home, at school, at catechism, with our parents, with everyone, even when we play and do sports—because prayers must always be accompanied by good works, by gestures of love. And thus peace grows!
Thanks again to everyone for being here. And now let's pray.
FULL TEXT ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens
Thursday, October 1, 2026
__________________
Good evening everyone! Good evening and welcome!
I thank His Eminence Cardinal Koch for his greeting, and the Aid to the Church in Need Foundation for promoting this initiative and for the great work it does. I thank everyone present for being here, especially you children, along with your parents and other family members, the priests, and all those accompanying you.
I'm really happy to be with you! And you guys, tell me: are you happy? Are you happy to be here? [ Yes! ].
I'm happy. Especially because this evening we've gathered to be together with the two people who love us more than anyone else. Do you know who they are? [ They answer: Jesus ] Jesus, and who else? [ Mary ] And Mary. The Lord Jesus and his mother Mary, who never leave us alone and who are always close to us.
We love them too, right? [ Yes! ] Do we want to say it? Let's try. Let's repeat together: I LOVE YOU, JESUS [ they repeat ]. I LOVE YOU, MARY [ they repeat ].
Yes, we love you, Jesus and Mary, and tonight we ask you for a special gift: peace for all the children of the world, especially those who live where there is war, in many countries of the earth.
We do this with the prayer of the Holy Rosary , which is a simple prayer that everyone can recite. We have already made the gesture of offering flowers, a sign of love. Soon we will light some candles and think of Jesus in some important moments of his life, in which he brought light and peace to so many people: when he was baptized in the Jordan River, when he transformed water into wine at the wedding at Cana, when he announced his Kingdom, when he showed his glory on Mount Tabor, and when, in the Cenacle, during the Last Supper, he left us the Eucharist. These are moments in which he gave us wonderful gifts, not to be forgotten, and for this we want to say thank you. Let us do this together, once again. Let us all say it: THANK YOU, JESUS! [ they repeat ]. And let us ask him with trust, all together: GIVE US PEACE! [ they repeat ]
And I want to tell you one last thing: this evening and these days, we are not alone in praying. Throughout the world, a million children are praying with us. A million! Just think: fifty million "Hail Marys" rising to Heaven from every corner and in every language on earth, asking for peace, and uniting as in a single, enormous rosary, to embrace and bind together all the continents, races, and nations of the planet.
Here, dear children, today we pray with all these friends. And in doing so, we also commit ourselves to being good and behaving well—at home, at school, at catechism, with our parents, with everyone, even when we play and do sports—because prayers must always be accompanied by good works, by gestures of love. And thus peace grows!
Thanks again to everyone for being here. And now let's pray.
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