Catholics across the Archdiocese of Chicago joined a worldwide effort March 13 to pray the Hail Mary for Pope Francis on the 10th anniversary of his election as pontiff. The effort was launched a month earlier by a group of “digital missionaries” who originally came together during the synodal process. The group asked participants to post the number of Hail Marys they planned to pray to a website (decimus-annus.org/site/index); by midday March 13 in Chicago, more than 45.2 million prayers had been pledged. That could be an undercount, because Queen of the Rosary School Principal Kathleen McGinn added only 10 Hail Marys on the website, not 10 for each student and staff member at the Elk Grove Village school who participated — more than 2,500 altogether. That also doesn’t count the Hail Marys prayed at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish in Elk Grove Village on March 12, where the Queen of the Rosary eighth grade basketball team attended Mass. Students at St. Damian School in Oak Forest gathered in the gym with their rosaries to pray their Hail Marys, led by Father Michael Olson, the associate pastor. Olson also told the students about his memories of the day Pope Francis was elected — something the elementary school students don’t remember. “My oldest students are 13,” said St. Damian Principal Jennifer Miller. “They don’t remember seeing the white smoke and the announcement that we have a pope.” Olson also told students that the first thing Pope Francis asked when he stepped onto the loggia in St. Peter’s Square after being elected was for the people gathered to pray for him. Miller said both Olson and St. Damian pastor Father Joe Noonan work closely with the school and make an effort to explain to students why they are praying, and that it’s not simply a matter of reciting a rote set of words because that’s what they are supposed to do. Events like the 10 Hail Marys for Pope Francis help the students feel connected not just to the pope, but to the wider church and to Jesus, Miller said. According to a press release announcing the effort, “The Petrine ministry is a great grace that Jesus granted to his church and we must always be grateful for it. Therefore, prayer must be our best gift, so that God may support the service of the one he has chosen for this ministry because on this rock he builds his church in time and history.”
Pope hospitalized for respiratory infection, Vatican says After having difficulty breathing, Pope Francis went to Rome's Gemelli hospital March 29 where he was diagnosed with a respiratory infection that will be treated in the hospital for several days, the Vatican press office said.
Pope ‘steadily improving’ from respiratory infection, Vatican says After spending the night in the hospital, Pope Francis is “steadily improving” from a respiratory infection and continuing his planned course of treatment, the Vatican press office said.
Pope issues updated 'Vos Estis' text for handling abuse cases Pope Francis has updated the procedures for investigating allegations of sexual abuse or of the cover up of abuse, specifying that the leaders of Vatican-recognized international Catholic lay associations and movements have the same responsibilities over their members that a bishop has over the priests of his diocese.