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At the end of the general audience on September 24, 2025, Pope Leo XIV invited Catholics around the world to pray the rosary for peace throughout the month of October. Amid serious tensions on the international scene, he announced that a prayer for peace would be held in St. Peter's Square on Saturday, October 11, at 6 p.m., as part of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality.
Dear brothers and sisters, the month of October is now approaching, and in the Church it is dedicated in a special way to the Holy Rosary. Therefore, I invite everyone, every day of the coming month, to pray the Rosary for peace: personally, in the family, in the community.
I also invite those who serve in the Vatican to say this prayer in Saint Peter’s Basilica every day, at 19.00.
In particular, the evening of Saturday 11 October, at 18.00, we will pray it together here in Saint Peter’s Square, during the vigil for the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, also commemorating the anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II.
History of peace
It was indeed on October 11, 1962, that John XXIII officially opened the Second Vatican Council, in a tense international context. Now a canonized saint, Pope John's feast day is celebrated that day. In '62, the Cuban missile crisis had raised the risk of a direct nuclear confrontation between the United States and the USSR, and the Good Pope's intervention helped to ease tensions.
October 12 is the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, the first Marian apparition (actually a bilocation) when she appeared to the Apostle St. James.
This year, the stalemate in the war in Ukraine and Russia's threats against other European countries are causing serious concern, as is the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in this territory that has been at war for nearly two years.
"We must renounce weapons, abandon military interests, and come to the negotiating table," the Pope insisted last night when asked about the international situation by journalists at Castel Gandolfo, where he had spent a day of rest.
