SUSAN SMITH writes that the Rosary is a prayer for the whole Church and not to be appropriated for purposes contrary to Gospel living.

In 1954, while I was in the fourth form at school in Lower Hutt, a major focus of life in Term One was preparing for Irish priest Father Peyton’s Rosary Crusade, part of the Church’s wider Marian celebration. A year earlier, Pius XII had ordered a Marian Year to celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.

In the 1950s, the Rosary seemed integral to our Catholic identity. At both primary and secondary school we said the Rosary every day and processions where we prayed the Rosary were part and parcel of life. We all had Rosary beads, often festooned with medals, particularly the miraculous medal, and we had collections of holy pictures of Mary appearing to Bernadette at Lourdes. The Sisters who taught us, whether they were Mission, Mercy or Josephite, wore extra-large Rosary beads as part of their religious habit.

At home, devotion to the Rosary saw our family kneeling down after our evening meal and praying the Rosary together because, as Father Peyton told us: “The family that prays together, stays together.”

Appropriation of the Rosary

Older Catholics will recall that the 1950s was about the Cold War, and praying the Rosary was thought to save us from Communism.

There was a big political agenda behind all this, and I learnt much later that the CIA had funded Father Peyton’s Rosary crusades in Latin America in an effort to diminish the appeal of left-wing political parties — better a right-wing dictatorship in Cuba than a left-wing dictatorship. The Vatican said “no” to such funding in 1966. Apparently, Father Peyton is now en route to canonisation as Francis declared him “Venerable” in late 2017.

Origins of the Rosary

There are different traditions as to how the Rosary originated. Some say that Mary appeared in an apparition to St Dominic in the 13th century, while others attribute its origins to a German Carthusian, St Dominic of Prussia (1382-1461).

Whatever, by the 16th century, the Rosary became the prayer par excellence for Catholics after the resounding Catholic victory over Turkish Muslims at the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571. Victory was not only attributed to Don John of Austria’s ability to out-manoeuvre the Turks, (see G.K. Chesterton’s narrative poem, Lepanto) but also to Catholics praying the Rosary. Unsurprisingly, two years later, Dominican pope Pius V established the feast of the Holy Rosary to celebrate the Catholic victory.

In 2002 Pope John Paul II added what he called the Luminous mysteries — the Baptism of Jesus, the wedding feast at Cana, the proclamation of the Gospel, the Transfiguration and the institution of the Eucharist. The Luminous mysteries are also Christological although I am not sure how commonly they are prayed.

The Rosary, with its 150 “Hail Marys” seems to have evolved as a prayer for those who could not read and pray the 150 psalms of the Divine Office chanted by monks and nuns. In an age when most people could neither read nor write, it was a wonderful way whereby Europe’s illiterate masses grew in their understanding of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the pivotal role of Mary in these events.

However, despite the strongly Christological and biblically-based emphasis of the different mysteries of the Rosary, except for the Assumption and Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven, the Rosary tended to be categorised as devotional, and by Protestants as a Marian devotion.

After Vatican II, with its emphasis on reclaiming the Bible as foundational for our spiritual lives, the Rosary became less significant for some Catholics.

Political Co-option Again

At the same time, for other Catholics, the various apparitions of Mary and the teachings she imparted during them, grew in importance. It was also becoming apparent that enthusiasm for Marian apparitions and teachings was associated with Catholics with a more traditional theology and right-wing mindset.

Historically and contemporan-eously, Mary was seen as a saviour in the Church’s struggles against her enemies — the Ottoman navy at Lepanto, Communism in the 20th century and more recently and disturbingly in the so-called “culture wars” that seem to be causing immense damage to the Church in the USA. Given our Kiwi propensity to follow what is happening in the USA in both society and Church, I wonder if we need to acknowledge that what is happening in the American Church could happen to us tomorrow.

In a recent article in The Atlantic (“How Extremist Gun Culture Is Trying to Co-opt the Rosary”, 15 August 2022), Canadian author Daniel Pannetton pointed to the discouraging ways politically and theologically conversative Catholics were taking over this wonderful prayer to support them in their efforts to reverse the changes mandated by Vatican II, and to ensure the dominance of white, male patriarchal culture. So, gun control is a “no, no".

The article directs attention to those media savvy Catholic traditionalists who reject Vatican II teachings, who show their rifles and machine guns draped with Rosaries, who encourage an extremist masculinist culture, and who are fanatically “anti-woke” — that is, opposed to anything that suggests social justice and care of creation are integral to being disciples of Jesus.

This and earlier politicisations of the Rosary are a disaster for contemporary Catholics.

Rosary Is Prayer for All

It concerns me that ultra-conservative Catholics such as Steve Bannon, former political strategist for Donald Trump and currently on trial for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack, have taken over a traditional prayer that belongs to all of us in order to bring about political goals that have little to do with Catholic social teaching.

I can accept that perhaps after Vatican II, it was simple enough for us to subscribe to the position that the Rosary was part of the devotional spirituality that could be replaced by a more explicitly bible-based spirituality. Yet in reflecting more on the Rosary, we can see it is biblically-grounded and provides a wonderful way of prayer. Its rhythmic recitation can allow the prayer to move into deeply meditative prayer that is both Christological and Mariological.

There will be many who have waited with a dear family member or friend on their last journey. How often has the dying person requested they say the Rosary? Many of us will have read accounts of Catholics imprisoned for their religious beliefs. Deprived of anything to read, they could still pray the Rosary.

To finish on a more personal note. I remember some years ago being on a yacht with another of our Sisters. Both of us saw ourselves as feminist, committed to liberation theology, so out with devotional spirituality and in with biblically-based prayer of a liberationist type. Anyway, our yacht ran into very difficult sailing conditions once we had left the safety of the Hauraki Gulf. The smaller mast and sail at the stern disappeared, never to be seen again. We were truly worried although the captain did not seem so concerned. Eventually we were blown into the safety of Fitzroy Harbour on Great Barrier. My Sister companion and I discovered that we each had been praying the Rosary fervently during our near escape from drowning.

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 275 October 2022: 12-13