Thousands pray, walk, celebrate in San Francisco multicultural Bay Area Rosary Rally

Event dedicated to “Our Lady Who Unites All Peoples”

By Christina Gray

The Bay Area Rosary Rally on Oct. 12 united local Catholics from nearly a dozen ethnic cultures in a day dedicated to “Our Lady Who Unites All Peoples.”

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption was a visual display of unified Marian devotion as members of the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s Hispanic, Chinese, Filipino, Nigerian, Black Catholic, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Myanmar, Korean, Polish/Slavic, Arab-American and Maronite communities arrived in native dress. This was the first year that the Rosary Rally was combined with the Mass for All Immigrants under the theme chosen by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.

“The Archdiocese of San Francisco is a microcosm of the Catholic Church, united by the same teachings of our Lord and worship amidst our diverse tongues and cultures,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a welcome message in the event program. He added that the theme, “Our Lady Who Unites All Peoples,” reflected “our love and concern for all immigrants in our Archdiocese,” as well a response to Pope Francis’ invitation at the 110th World Day for Migrants and Refugees on Sept. 29. The multilingual “Mass of the Americas” liturgy reflected the theme.

The Knights of St. Peter Claver and the Knights of Columbus provided the honor guard for the Archbishop.

Multilingual rosary

The day formally began with a Rosary talk by Dominican Father Michael Hurley, followed by the recitation of the rosary in different languages.

The five decades of the rosary were led by representatives of five ethnic groups and said in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Igbo, the language of Nigeria.

Father Michael addressed the nearly full cathedral in a talk detailing the rosary’s “development and fruitfulness” in five different moments in history, what he called the “history mysteries.” 

“My goal is very, very direct and simple,” he said. “My job today is to inspire you to pray the rosary,” he said. “That’s it.”

He offered the perspective of someone who himself once felt that praying the rosary every day seemed like, “a lot.”

“It takes about 14-15 minutes to pray five decades of the rosary,” he said, or about one percent of the day. “I’m not a math person, but if you can’t give one percent of the day to the Lord, if you can’t spend one percent of the day meditating on the incarnation, the salvation, suffering, passion and death and the glory which is our destiny, what are you doing?”

Father Hurley used the physical rosary with its beads of Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s as a metaphor for Christian unity.

“What unites them is the core, the rope, the string,” he said. “Our Lady is like that core. She’s like the string that unites all peoples together to bring them reliably to her Son.”

The Mass of the Americas

The Rosary Rally Mass was the Mass of the Americas, a twin liturgical tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception conceived by Archbishop Cordileone and composed and directed by Frank La Rocca for the first time six years ago. The Mass features sacred music in Spanish, Latin, English, and Nahuatl, the Aztec language spoken by Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego.

“A special welcome and thanks to so many priests from around the Archdiocese who have joined us today to celebrate the Mass and participate in the procession after the Mass,” Archbishop Cordileone said. The priests included Father Rami Razzouk, pastor of Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Millbrae, an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

In his homily, the Archbishop noted the intermittent roar of the Blue Angels’ U.S. Navy jet performances outside, and applied it to our faith. “We have the certain hope that on this day we will be accompanied by angels,” he said. “It might seem ironic, maybe even verging on blasphemous, that the name of a celestial being would be applied to such a forceful instrument of war. Let us recall, though, what those who serve our nation in the Armed Forces do for us: they protect us from enemies who are trying to harm us.  Is this not exactly what the angels do for us?”

The devil is the “great divider,” he said, always seeking to destroy the people of God. The most powerful weapon we have to defend ourselves against the attacks of the enemy is to pray the holy rosary. 

“By praying the rosary, we meditate on the mysteries of our salvation, and ask Our Lady to intercede for us,” he said. “She will keep us on the path that leads us to her Son, she will constantly remind us that he is the one mediator, that there is no other way to the Father than through him.”

Pope St. John Paul II wrote on the rosary, he said, speaking precisely of Our Lady as a force for unity, when we pray her rosary. 

“… in Mary, God has given us the most zealous guardian of Christian unity.  There are, of course, more ways than one to win her protection by prayer, but … the best and most effective way to her favor lies in the Rosary.  [For] the devout Christian … not least among the advantages of the Rosary is the ready and easy means it puts in his hands to nurture his faith, and to keep him from ignorance of his religion and the danger of error,” Pope St. John Paul wrote.

“Let us, then, always seek her protection and that of the angels by our frequent recourse to prayer, and above all, by praying her rosary,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “Under her mantle of maternal love, and the reinforcement of the heavenly hosts, we will be protected from the attacks and deceptions of the enemy.”

The Prayers of the Faithful following the homily were offered in seven languages, Vietnamese, Korean, Polish, Burmese, Nigerian, Arabic, and Cantonese.

The Procession

As the those gathered prepared for the procession after the Mass around the city blocks surrounding the cathedral, Father Illo took a moment to recognize the many religious orders present at the Mass, “especially the orders dedicated to the rosary,” he said. These included the Dominicans, Franciscans, and the Missionaries of Charity and “many others who wear rosaries as a weapon, always ready to defend Holy Mother Church.”

Veronica Carillo, a parishioner of Church of the Assumption of St. Mary in Tomales, said she and her three sons drove from their home in Santa Rosa that morning. Her 12-year-old son, Bradley, was an altar server for the Mass. “He couldn’t wait for the Rosary Rally Mass,” she said. Bradley already knows he wants to be a priest, she said.

The procession was followed by Benediction and closing hymns.

Ethnic Food Festival, Know Your Rights Workshops, Info Fair

After the Mass, participants were invited to a free ethnic food festival with different cultural groups sharing their traditional cuisine. The day included live performances, including a youth Mariachi group and a traditional Lebanese dance by Maronite teens. There was also an info fair, with tables staffed by Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul-SF, Real Options, Legion of Mary and archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity. Catholic Charities offered two Know Your Rights workshops in English and in Spanish in collaboration with the archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity.