The World Mission Rosary was designed by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen 75 years ago as a way for Catholics to pray for peace around the world. In preparation for his beatification, Catholics are making 75,000 rosaries that will be prayed at the service. A team at St. Mark Parish in Huntersville assembled more than 4,000. (Amy Burger, Catholic News Herald)
HUNTERSVILLE — Seventy-five years after Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen introduced the World Mission Rosary, parishioners at St. Mark Church in Huntersville spent their summer making more than 4,000 of them for his upcoming beatification.
Members of the parish’s Rosary Makers Ministry – Our Lady Undoer of Knots – hand-knotted 4,041 World Mission Rosaries. The rosaries were blessed Aug. 30 and shipped to join a nationwide effort preparing for Sheen’s Sept. 24 beatification in St. Louis.
Sheen was one of the most recognizable American Catholic figures of the 20th century. A bishop, author and popular radio and television preacher, he brought the Catholic faith into millions of homes.
He served for 16 years as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in the United States, now part of The Pontifical Mission Societies USA.
In preparation for his beatification, Catholics were asked to make 75,000 World Mission Rosaries, marking the 75th anniversary of the rosary Sheen designed.
At St. Mark, Rosary Makers Ministry coordinator Sharon Torczynski saw the request from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist and decided the parish could help.
She set a goal of 4,000. They finished 4,041.
A rosary for the world
Sheen introduced the rosary to help Catholics pray for the Church and its missions. Its five decades represent different regions: green for Africa, blue for the Pacific Islands, white for Europe, red for the Americas and yellow for Asia.
For Torczynski, the timing of the project was hard to miss.
“What’s really cool is Fulton Sheen designed this for world peace, and right now we’re in turmoil with all the wars going on,” she said. “What perfect timing for him to be beatified and have the World Mission
Rosaries at a time when the world needs peace.”
The work continued throughout the summer. Parishioners picked up materials to work at home and came together at meetings. Some were longtime rosary makers; others had just learned. People who could not knot rosaries helped count beads, cut cord, prepare kits and package finished rosaries.
Learning to make a rosary
Erica Barnett Richardson was one of the newcomers. She had recently begun attending St. Mark and was going through OCIA with her husband when she saw the project in the parish bulletin.
“I really just wanted to do something for God,” Richardson said.
She learned how by watching YouTube. By late summer, she had completed her first batch of 50 and was working on 50 more.
At the same time, Richardson was learning to pray the rosary.
A few months earlier, her mother-in-law had given her a rosary from the Vatican as she was becoming interested in Catholicism. She now prays it in the morning and at night.
“It’s literally just changed my life,” she said. “I just feel more connected to God..”
Other members brought their own connections.
Margaret Allen once lived in Rochester, New York, where Sheen served as bishop from 1966 to 1969.
“I feel more connected, which is helping me a lot,” Allen said.
Linda Lombardo, who has been making rosaries for more than a year, thought about the people who would eventually receive them. “You can pray without a rosary, right?” she said. “But once you have it in your hand, it’s a lot easier to start.”
Blessed and sent
On Aug. 30, members of the ministry gathered at St. Mark with baskets filled with completed rosaries. Father Christopher Angermeyer blessed all 4,041.
After the blessing, he thanked the rosary makers. “I know it’s a lot of dedication, so I’m happy you guys were able to do this,” Father Angermeyer told the group.
The following day, Torczynski and volunteer Karen Orvis packed four boxes weighing 154 pounds for shipment.
Before the beatification Mass, the rosaries will be blessed and distributed to those attending, who can take them home.
Torczynski has thought about that moment.
“Just imagine the power of the prayer,” she said. “It gives me goosebumps.”
— Amy Burger