Vatican News Article Highlights Children's Rosary Visit to the Pope

While we were waiting for the Pope to arrive on Wednesday, a reporter from the L'Osservatore Romano/Vatican News approached Asher and asked if he could ask him some questions for an article in L'Osservatore Romano. He knew a good deal already about the Children's Rosary and Asher as he remarked that he researches who the Pope will be meeting. The conversation was highlighted in two articles listed below.

Udienza generale - il racconto - Uno sguardo di amore, rispetto e compassione - L'Osservatore Romano

Dal Papa con uno sguardo di amore, rispetto e compassione - Vatican News

A translation of the portion of the article featuring the Children's Rosary is below:

“As a further witness to the prayer of the Rosary, from the United States Mrs. Blythe Kaufman, accompanied by her son Asher, a young seminarian of the Diocese of Hartford, presented to the Pope Children’s Rosary, the lay movement she founded 15 years ago, now present in 53 countries, which promotes moments of prayer for children in parishes, schools, and orphanages. At the end of the audience, they gave the Pope a book containing the testimonies of many children who live this experience, as well as of priests who host the initiative in their parishes.”

Prayers for the Members of the Children's Rosary at Santa Maria in Trastevere, Rome

During a visit to Santa Maria Church in Trastevere, we attended Mass and also lit a candle for all the members of the Children's Rosary. A woman approached us who was visiting Rome. Her name was Dominica Bean. She had recognized our Children's Rosary T-shirts. It turns out she is one our rosary makers. We have over 250 rosary-making groups providing handmade rosaries to the Children's Rosary. These rosaries are given to help spread the Children's Rosary. 

Radio Maria World Family in Rome

 

One of the producers from EWTN Rome brought us to the offices of Radio Maria World Family. This is the headquarters for all the Radio Maria Stations. The photo above includes Fr. Ma, who runs Radio Maria China. More of the Radio Maria team is shown below.

The Children's Rosary has been leading a an hour of prayer on Radio Maria USA since 2014. This occurs on the second Saturday of each month at 3:00 p.m. Central time. Children's Rosary members also lead a Rosary each Saturday at 12:30 p.m. on Radio Maria Ireland. We are looking to expand our involvement with Radio Maria hopefully to include Radio Maria UK and other countries. 

Jubilee of Families 2025

 

Divine Providence was at work with our meeting with Cardinal Eijk Friday. We found out Thursday that the cardinal was in Rome, and we were able to attend his lecture on bioetheics at the Augustinianum. Cardinal Eijk has been a wonderful friend to the Children's Rosary and wrote the Preface for the Child Consecration book. We spoke today about encouraging formation of Children's Rosary groups in the Netherlands and the upcoming translation of the Children's Rosary book in Dutch. We are grateful to Cardinal Eijk, who facilitated the publishing of the Child Consecration book in Dutch.

Yesterday we attended the Federation of Catholic Family Associations (FAFSE) Conference. We had the opportunity to meet again Bishop Denis Nulty from the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, Ireland. 

We also were able to meet with our friend, Catherine Wiley, from the Catholic Grandparents Association. 

We continued to visit friends during our visit. We had dinner with Fr. David Kaluah from Mombasa, Kenya. He is studying in Rome. We stayed in his parish during our 2019 trip to Kenya. He has helped launch Children's Rosary groups. During dinner he mentioned under is dress shirt and collar he was wearing a Children's Rosary T-shirt. He was kind enough so show it for the picture. 

In addition to seeing old friends, we are meeting new people. We typically take an evening walk in St. Peter's Square where we pray the Rosary. On our way home we met Bishop Abba Lesanuchristos Matheos from Ethiopia. We told him about the Children's Rosary. We were delighted to receive an email from him this morning. As of yet we have had no Children's Rosary groups in Ethiopia but would welcome the opportunity to begin groups there. 

Benvenutti a Roma!

These were the welcome greetings we have received since arriving in Rome. Asher and I will be here until June 5 when we will be traveling to Ireland for the All Ireland Rosary Rally. 

We arrived safely yesterday, albeit with a very tight connection through Dublin. Thank you to those who prayed for us. Those prayers were heard. We carry with us rosaries, Children's Rosary materials and Children's Rosary flags (thank you, Mary Ann). 

We are excited to be in the seat of the Catholic Church in these days leading up to Pentecost. Yesterday we attended Mass at St. Peters after leaving the airport and went through the Holy Door open for the Jubilee. I prayed in a special way for the members of the Children's Rosary during Adoration at the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament at St. Peter's Basilica. 

Today we met with the EWTN team in Rome and did a segment for their Vaticano show about the Children's Rosary. 

The view behind us during the interview was perfect. After the interview we darted into St Anne's Church just in time before our friend Fr. Anthony was leaving the Confessional. He so kindly translated the Children's Rosary book into Arabic. 

We have found a lovely farmers market just a block from where we are staying which has been our sustenance. All the yummy vegetables are in season now. 

Children's Rosary Featured on EWTN's "Vatican Insider"

During our visit to Rome this summer, we had the special grace to meet with Joan Lewis, the host of EWTN's Vatican Insider radio show. Joan has been a Vatican reporter for over 40 years. We first met for lunch, and she shared wonderful stories of her time in Rome and special friendship with Pope John Paul II, which included making him homemade cookies. She invited us to her home to record a two part radio show about the Children's Rosary. See the picture above taken in her library. Both episodes of the Vatican Insider featuring the Children's Rosary can be heard below:

 1: https://listen.ewtn.com/~LE/~LE20220626.mp3

And part 2: https://listen.ewtn.com/~LE/~LE20220703.mp3

She also featured the Children's Rosary on her Vatican Insider Blog.

Interview on the Spanish Steps of Rome (in Spanish)

During our visit in Rome we had a providential meeting with Father Ralf Prada on the Spanish Steps. Father Ralf Prada speaks Italian and Spanish but not English.  Noticing Asher's T shirt in Spanish he invited him to do a brief interview for his YouTube channel. See the video HERE or watch below at time mark 2 minutes. I provide a very short introduction to the Children's Rosary in English after Asher's Interview.

Durante nuestra visita en Roma tuvimos un encuentro providencial con el Padre Ralf Prada en la Plaza de España. El Padre Ralf Prada habla Italiano y Español, pero no Inglés.  Observando la camiseta que Asher tenía puesto en Español, lo invitó a hacer una breve entrevista para su canal de Youtube.  Observa el video AQUÍ o observalo arriba a la marca de 2 minutos.

Papal Mass for the WMOF Rome 2022

 

Dear Friends,

We just returned from the Papal Mass tonight in St. Peter's Square for the World Meeting of Families. Our whole Children's Rosary delegation attended, which included five of us. 

As we had attended the meeting as delegates, we were allowed to be very close to the Holy Father during the Mass. 

Please know that in a special way I included all of you who are part of the Children's Rosary in my prayers. As the Holy Father was moving through the Square prior to the Mass, tears began to come and I felt a tremendous amount of grace. This being the Feast of the Immaculate Heart, it was a special day to celebrate Mass at the seat of the Church and with priests, religious, and the faithful from around the world. 

The sentiment that kept welling up in my heart was an appreciation for the beauty of our Church. Not the physical structure but the living Church and the beauty of our liturgy, which is a tender gift from Our Lord. At the conclusion of the Mass, it was announced that the next meeting will be in 2028. However, in 2025, a "Jubilee of Families" will take place in Rome. We look forward to returning to this city in three years. It has been a grace filled three weeks. Thank you all who have prayed for us. We look forward to Sunday Mass tomorrow at St. Peter's Square and the Angelus.

God Bless You.

Your Friend in Christ,

Blythe

World Meeting of Families Begins in Rome

 There is tremendous excitement here in Rome as the delegates from around the world have arrived. The World Meeting of Families kicked off with the Festival of Families and the Holy Father, Pope Francis was there (see above). 

Even in the line to get into the event we found blessing as we met some tremendous people. We met Archbishop Pettipas of Canada, shown above. He was very excited to hear about the Children's Rosary. Within the Paul VI Hall we were seated next to two bishops from Mexico and a large Mexican delegation. 

It was a tremendous evening of sharing and meeting new people. We were able to share with Archbishop Eamon Martin (shown below) the wonderful news that at least fifteen new Children's Rosary groups have formed in Ireland since last October. 

The Mass that was held today in St. Peter's Basilica was beautiful and started another full day at the Meeting. We hope to continue to share dispatches as the days continue.

Greetings from Rome

Dear Friends,

On Pentecost June 5, my son, Asher (age 15) and I set out for Rome. We left Newark airport (see photo above) for a 3 week pilgrimage. From the moment we got in line for security check in Newark, we could see the fruits of our prayers asking Our Blessed Mother to be our guide. The person in front of us in the security line was a priest who is in charge of evangelization for the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. Indeed this trip so far has been peppered with a multitude of providential meetings. 

The travel was difficult, but we arrived on Monday, June 6, in time to make our way to St. Peter's Basilica for their last daily Mass of the day. The sun was streaming through the stained glass window above the altar. It has indeed been a great blessing to spend the Octave of Pentecost in Rome. 

Our daily uniform has been the Children's Rosary T-shirts. Asher and I wear these each day. It is amazing to see the smiles we get from total strangers as we wear the image of Our Blessed Mother of the Children's Rosary across our shirt. We also carry the Children's Rosary book with us as we want always to be prepared
to share these as gifts. We see these little books as seeds that we share during our travels. We put our hope and trust in God that they can bring fruit.

Please know that our time in Rome has also been one of prayer. We have brought you here with us to St. Peter's Basilica where we attend Mass most days and also have the opportunity for Adoration. When we have not attended Mass on a particular day at St. Peter's Basilica it is because we attended Mass at another location, such as the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Basilica St. John Lateran, or at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi in the village of Assisi.  We usually end our evenings with a walk when it is cooler in St. Peter's Square, which makes a lovely place to pray the Rosary. We had a providential meeting with the Archbishop of Lahore Pakistan (see photo below) in St. Peter's Square. It was a great blessing to meet Archbishop Shaw since we have many Children's Rosary groups in his Archdiocese. 

We were able to visit the Church with the original Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which appears on the back of our Children's Rosary book. See below the original icon is over the altar.

We will cap our trip to Rome by attending the World Meeting of Families at the Vatican beginning on June 22. From Rome, we will travel to Austria to stay at the Cistercian monastery, Heiligenkreuz, until July 1. We will then complete our pilgrimage by visiting Scotland for a special prayer event with Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland. 

We hope to continue with dispatches from the journey. 

United in prayer.

Your Friend in Christ,

Blythe