Rosary Rally brings Catholic witness to downtown San Francisco

Rally participants stayed at the plaza to be enrolled in the brown scapular and for Benediction. The annual rally for Marian devotion renewed the archdiocese’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. (Photos by Debra Greenblat/Catholic San Francisco)
 
October 7, 2019
Nicholas Wolfram Smith
 
Traffic came to a stop in San Francisco as hundreds walked in a eucharistic procession down McAllister Street toward U.N. Plaza during the Rosary Rally on Oct. 5, part of an increased emphasis on public witness to faith.
 
“To pray in public is good for the country and good for the soul,” Father Joseph Illo, the rally emcee, said. “How many people will see people praying today and begin to do that themselves?”
 
The rally began with Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral celebrated by Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone. The archbishop said in his homily that the Gospel reading on Martha and Mary showed the importance of prayer in Christian discipleship.
 
A life of service that does not involve any connection to Christ will always be incomplete, the archbishop said, “because without being centered in prayer, our service will not look ultimately to the spiritual good of the other. In some way or another our service will be compromised by self-interest.”
 
At the end of Mass, the archbishop renewed the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s consecration to the Immaculate Heart. Afterward, the eucharistic procession, led by students from Archbishop Riordan High School’s football team, proceeded down Gough and McAllister streets to U.N. Plaza, praying the rosary along the way.
 
In the plaza, participants recited the rosary and were enrolled in the brown scapular by Discalced Carmelite Father Robert Elias Barcelos. Father Barcelos said the brown scapular is the oldest sacramental devotion to Mary, and is a sign of Mary’s pledge to offer “maternal protection and assistance.”
 
Dave Martin, one of the rally organizers, said exchanging a church setting for the public square was a deliberate decision to “show our faith.”
 
“The poor church is under so much siege, we don’t leave our churches any more. One of our missions is evangelization and we can do that by being present in the city,” he said.
 
Father Illo agreed, adding that moving outside the church walls was something frequently encouraged by Pope Francis.
 
“We want to share our faith with the whole city, share the joy of Jesus with the whole community,” he said.
 
 
The 2019 Rosary Rally’s eucharistic procession moves down Gough Street in San Francisco on Oct. 5.
 
 
After arriving at U.N. Plaza, the rosary was led by two families in English and Spanish.