At the end of September 2018, in the midst of the annus horribilis for the Roman Catholic Church (with the deflagration of the sexual abuses and the growing spiral of inner conflicts within the curia), Pope Francis called his people to pray to Mary in order to ask for her protection.
He asked the faithful to conclude the Rosary with the ancient invocation Sub tuum praesidium (We fly to Thy patronage). The full Marian invocation is recited as follows:
We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God. Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.
Francis (1936-2025) – the Pope so close, yet so far away?
A leading evangelical in Rome, Leonardo De Chirico, offers his personal reflections on the direction of the Roman Catholic Church …