What are we celebrating? As hard as it is to believe, it is just one year ago that on May 8th, 2025 – Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected to the Papal office as Pope Leo XIV.
Below are some passages of the speech that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV would deliver to our hearts on May 8, 2025.
“Peace be with you” — dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the flock of God.
I too wish that this greeting of peace may enter our hearts and reach your families, all people wherever they may be, every nation, the whole world: peace be with you.
This is the peace of the Risen Christ — a peace that is disarmed and disarming, humble and enduring. It comes from God, who loves us all unconditionally.
Allow me to continue in that same spirit: God loves us. God loves you all. Evil will not prevail. We are all in God’s hands. So, without fear, hand in hand with God and with one another, let us move forward.”
“We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge that leads us to God and His love.
Help us — and help one another — to build bridges through dialogue, through encounter, so that we may all be united as one people, always in peace.
Thank you, Pope Francis! I wish to thank my brother Cardinals who have chosen me to be Peter’s successor and to walk with you as one Church, always seeking peace and justice.
I am a son of Saint Augustine — an Augustinian — who said, “With you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop.” In this spirit, we walk together toward the homeland God has prepared for us.”
A special greeting!
Together we must seek how to be a missionary Church — a Church that builds bridges of dialogue, always open to welcome, like this very square, with open arms, all those in need of our charity, our presence, our love.
To all of you — brothers and sisters from Rome, from Italy, from all over the world — we want to be a Synodal Church, a Church that walks, that always seeks peace, seeks charity, and remains close especially to those who suffer.
“Today, on the day of the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii, may our Mother Mary walk with us, remain close to us, and help us with her intercession and love.
So let us pray together — for this new mission, for the whole Church, and for peace in the world. And let us ask this special grace from Mary, our Mother.”
[Here the Holy Father led the Hail Mary with the faithful gathered in the square] Amen.
Where is Pope Leo XIV going to celebrate his First Anniversary on Friday, May 8th, 2026?
He’s off to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii arriving at 9:00 am where he will spend time in Eucharistic Adoration. The Pope will then celebrate 10:30 a.m. Mass in a plaza named for St. Bartolo Longo. He will also visit the Chapel dedicated to this Saint as well where his relics lie.
At noon – the traditional Supplication to the Virgin of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii will take place. After lunch, the Pope will take a 15 minute helicopter to Naples. There he will be able to pray with the reliquary containing the ampoules of the blood of Saint Januarius. The Saint’s blood is said to liquify three times a year, including on the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
The last event of the day will be an Act of Entrustment to the Virgin Mary.
A beloved image of the Immaculate Conception will be brought into the square; the event marks the bicentenary of her coronation.
He will depart for the Vatican at 6:45 p.m.
Bartolo Longo, TOSD was an Italian lawyer and former Satanic priest who returned to the Catholic faith and became a Dominican tertiary. He dedicated his life to the Rosary and the Virgin Mary. He was eventually awarded a papal knighthood of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. Bartolo was beatified on October 26, 1980 by Pope John Paul II. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on October 19, 2025.
He had a very radical conversion! As a lawyer, he was drawn into satanism and became a lay apostle of the modern church. However, the Blessed Virgin Mary would triumph in his heart.
On May 29th, 1865 – exactly one year after he turned towards spiritism – his Dominican spiritual director would quote Bartolo Longo’s words:
“Oh my God, ever patient, ever kind – on that very same day, May 29th, when I had rejected you to embrace the serpent, you willed that the Triumph of Your Mother should take place in me.”
Sorrentino would say that – “from that moment his life became entirely oriented to the Gospel and to Charity.”
In 1872, Bartolo Longo heard a voice within: “If you are looking for salvation, propagate the rosary.”
It is Mary’s promise: “Whoever propagates the rosary will be saved.” Obeying that call within his heart, he promised not to leave the region until he established devotion to the Virgin of the Rosary. Bartolo Longo would find himself totally dedicating his life to building a Marian Shrine known worldwide as Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Pope Saint John Paul II called Bartolo Longo – “Our Lady’s Man!”
Apostolic Letter of Blessed John Paul II – On the Most Holy Rosary – given to the Church on October 16, 2002.
…I look to all of you, brothers and sisters of every state of life, to you, Christian families, to you, the sick and elderly, and to you, young people: confidently take up the Rosary once again. Rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture, in harmony with the Liturgy, and in the context of your daily lives.
May this appeal of mine not go unheard! At the start of the twenty-fifth year of my Pontificate, I entrust this Apostolic Letter to the loving hands of the Virgin Mary, prostrating myself in spirit before her image in the splendid Shrine built for her by Blessed Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary.
I willingly make my own the touching words with which he concluded his well-known Supplication to the Queen of the Holy Rosary:
“O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God,
bond of love which unites us to the angels,
tower of salvation against the assaults of Hell,
safe port in our universal shipwreck,
we will never abandon you.
You will be our comfort in the hour of death:
yours our final kiss as life ebbs away.
And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name,
O Queen of the Rosary of Pompei,
O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners,
O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted.
May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven”
As we move towards this Friday’s celebration and everyday afterwards – let us unite with Pope Leo XIV with the words that he stated above on May 8, 2025:
Today, on the day of the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii, may our Mother Mary walk with us, remain close to us, and help us with her intercession and love.
So let us pray together — for this new mission, for the whole Church, and for peace in the world. And let us ask this special grace from Mary, our Mother.”
May we “all” reach out in prayer with rosaries in hand praying for World Peace united with Our Pope Leo XIV this May 8th, 2026 and all the days following.
May is the month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother! St. Bartolo was called – “Our Lady’s Man!” by Pope Saint John Paul II.
Let us all be called “Children of Mary”…..and please Her in all ways by praying Her Rosary!
She calls us in many places such as Medugorje and in many apparitions to pray all “four mysteries – Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious.”
It is Her “Family Album” that She desires to share with us! St. Bartolo Longo understood this very concretely. May we do this same and bear fruit that will encompass the world in peace and love.
MAKE IT A HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY FOR HER
EVERY DAY BY PRAYING THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
©2026 Anita Guariglia
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Sources/ NCR online –
Aleteia
Vaticannews.va
