The Confederation of Confraternities of the Dioceses of Italy adheres with conviction to the World Rosary Day scheduled for October 7, 2024. The spirituality of our families and confraternities was formed on the prayer of the Rosary, the “compendium of the Gospel”, the breviary of prayer of the People of God.
The Second Vatican Council, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, affirms that the Blessed Virgin “now shines on earth before the pilgrim People of God, as a sign of sure hope and consolation, until the day of the Lord comes” (2 Pt 3:10)” (LG n. 68). As members of our confraternities we are called to adhere to the present reality with patience and perseverance, overcoming the temptations to look with nostalgia and regret at a past that does not return and at an illusory expectation of an idealized future. For our confraternities, the common journey towards the next Jubilee, following the Virgin Mary on her pilgrimage of faith witnessed by the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries of the Rosary, is a great opportunity for the regeneration of hope that as a Christian community we can put in place, accompanying the seekers of light of our time to live experiences that, by bringing them out of the darkness of daily dramas, raise their eyes to Jesus Christ, “Light of the Gentiles”, who opens them to certain hope for the future.
Michele Pennisi
Archbishop Emeritus of Monreale
Assistant to the Confederation of Confraternities of the Dioceses of Italy
