Annual Rosary Crusade at Fatima Shrine on Sunday, Sept. 25

The 31st annual Rosary Crusade will be held from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, 1023 Swann Road, Lewiston.

Volunteers from parishes around the area met at the St. Vincent de Paul Parish's St. Leo's site in the Town of Niagara to pack rosaries and instructions on how to pray the rosary for distribution at Sunday's Rosary Crusade at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine. 

Monsignor J. Thomas Moran, pastor of St. Bernard's Church in Youngstown, is the founder of the Rosary Crusade. He is moderator of this year's event, which is sponsored by the Niagara Council of Catholic Women of the Diocese of Buffalo. Chairwoman is Dolores Laurrie of Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Parish in Niagara Falls.

This year's theme is "Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, intercedes for all humanity."

The Rev. Bernard Confer of Our Lady of the Rosary Monastery in Buffalo will be the homilist on Sunday.

The Rosary Crusade also will include an outdoor rosary procession, blessing of the children and coronation of the statue of Mary by the Granieri family from St. Raphael Parish in Niagara Falls. Niagara County students will participate in reciting of the rosary. Niagara University ROTC students will provide a color guard. Rosaries and instructions on how to pray the rosary will be distributed at no cost.

Pope Benedict XVI has bestowed an apostolic blessing upon all participants in this year's Rosary Crusade.