Pope Francis and the Magnificent Rosary

By Stephanie Haupt

My husband and I have only recently begun to attend Latin Mass regularly.

For the past few weeks my husband has expressed his desire to have the family pray the Rosary every night. I full heartedly agreed with the suggestion, but emphasized that I wanted to understand the meaning better before we started.

I wasn’t interested in participating in something just for the sake of doing it.

Ironically about a month ago, we found a very old copy of the book "The Secret of the Rosary" by St. Louis de Montfort at a thrift store. Last night after I had gotten all of our kids to sleep, for whatever reason, I decided I was going to sit down and read the book. I sat down on the couch next to my laptop and thought I’d just quick check my email and maybe this paper’s webpage before starting the book. When I came to the page and saw a new Remnant Forum video had been posted about "praying versus prayers", I figured I'd watch to see what the latest news on Pope Francis was.

I was shocked to read and hear about his comments from his homily earlier that day about prayers. Among other things, he stated, "It’s one thing to pray, and another thing to say prayers...These do not pray, they abandon the faith and become disciples of a moralistic, casuistry ideology, without Jesus."

Those are clearly loaded words.

As I tried to digest the news, I remembered the book I had brought out.

I opened it, began to read, and within the first four pages saw that every single word printed went against everything Pope Francis had just preached. In Montfort’s introduction he says, "Therefore let all men, the learned and the ignorant, the just and the sinners, the great and the small praise and honor Jesus and Mary, night and day, by saying the Most Holy Rosary." He discusses how there is no limit to the power of the Rosary and through his own experience and others he had seen it successfully help sinners.

Montfort begins the book with the history of the Rosary, which is not only incredibly informative for those who don’t know (like myself), but it is also an awe inspiring story. The Rosary in the form we use today was received by Saint Dominic in the early 13th century by the Holy Mother herself. He was instructed to use it to convert sinners and preached it intensely throughout the rest of his life. However, it was quickly forgotten and dismissed until the 15th century after the plague. The Lord, and at another date the Holy Mother, came to Blessed Alan de la Roche and instructed him to once again begin the practice of praying the Rosary and preaching it again.

The book continues with explanations, stories, and methods to the Rosary.

It truly is an extraordinary book. It emphasizes over and over again the importance of prayer, "The Holy Rosary is the root and the storehouse of countless blessings." The book in its entirety does nothing but contradict the statements from Pope Francis. Reciting prayers and saying the Rosary are ways to strengthen our faith, not diminish it. In fact Montfort says, "Even if you suffer from dryness of soul, boredom and interior discouragement, never give up the least little bit of your Rosary – for this would be a sure sign of pride and faithlessness."

What I found extremely interesting were his discussions of evil attempting to pull people away from prayers, "then of course there is the devil who never tires of trying to distract us and keep us from praying". He gives the example of praying the Rosary, "When we have finished, he whispers to us: 'What you have just said is worthless...It’s only a waste of time to pray without paying attention to what you’re saying.’ By tricks of this kind the devil gets us to give up the Rosary altogether or hardly say it at all...or else change to some other devotion." I don’t want to make any implications, but it is exceedingly difficult to hide the parallels between the words hypothetically given here and pieces of the speech given by the Holy Father last week.

It is hard to not question Pope Francis when he spoke of praying in his homily. Of course it is in no one’s best interest to recite prayers without concentrating on what they’re saying, or to go through the motions with prayers. Perhaps in those instances it would indeed be more beneficial for the person to simply have a private discussion with the Lord.

However to insist that the recitation of prayers in general is falling to ideology is not only extreme, but goes against what the Church has taught us in the past. "When the Rosary is well said it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and it is more meritorious for the soul than any other prayer," Montfort writes. And he gives more than enough proof and examples to convince any nonbeliever.

As many other traditionalists are experiencing right now, it is incredibly disheartening to hear all of the latest views and speeches given by Pope Francis. To attempt to live the way we have been taught, and others have lived for hundreds of years before us, and then to be told we are fixating on the wrong things or falling to ideology through our prayers is difficult; especially since we are living in the wake of the positive strides towards traditionalism from Pope Benedict XVI. However, our solace is knowledge of the truth and hope that in time others will discover it as well.

As Montfort so powerfully proclaimed, "Now at last you must wake up, and if you want to live and die without sin, at least mortal sin, pray unceasingly; say your Rosary every day." v