Prisoners in Argentina offer prayers for John Paul II

Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 7, 2003 / 22:00 pm

Prison inmates of the Florencio Valera Penitentiary prayed one thousand Hail Marys today for the intentions of John Paul II, uniting themselves spiritually with the Holy Father in his pilgrimage to the Italian Shrine of Popeii where he closed the Year of the Rosary. The prisoners offered their thousand prayers in union with the Rosary Campaign of the Diocese of Quilmes, thanks to the prison ministry efforts of missionaries of the Schoenstatt movement. Prisoners prayed alone in front of the pilgrim image of the Virgin of Schoenstatt. 

According to sources within the Movement, the members of Schoenstatt have gathered together in many places throughout the world, especially in Latin America, to accompany the Pope through Rosaries, Masses, Eucharistic adoration and other activities. 

“The personal and intense devotion to Mary and the Holy Rosary which the Pope has shown us once again, is an original characteristic of the Campaign of the Pilgrim Virgin and the Holy Rosary,” sources said. “The fact that the Pope is on pilgrimage to Pompeii unites you to the ‘pre-history’ of Schoenstatt. It was precisely an article on St. Bartolo Longo and the Shrine of Popeii that inspired Father Kentenich to found the Shoenstatt Movement.”