Signalling his belief that the Church faces a serious crisis, Pope Francis asked every Catholic in the world to pray for the protection of the Church from attacks by the devil, and also for the Church to to be stronger in combatting abuse.
Pope Francis asked Catholics to pray the rosary each day in October, seeking Mary’s intercession in protecting the Church, and “at the same time making her (the Church) more aware of her sins, errors and the abuses committed in the present and the past, and committed to fighting without hesitation so that evil would not prevail”, the Vatican said in a statement released on the feast of the Archangels.
United “in communion and penitence as the people of God”, the statement said, Catholics should plead for protection against “the devil, who always seeks to divide us from God and from one another”.
Protection
Pope Francis met earlier in September with Jesuit Fr Federic Fornos, international director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, formerly known as the Apostleship of Prayer, to ask that the recitation of the rosary in October conclude with “the ancient invocation sub Tuum Praesidium (‘under your protection’) and with the prayer to St Michael the Archangel, who protects us in the battle against evil”.
The Vatican, announcing Pope Francis’ prayer request, cited his homily on September 11 at morning Mass where he spoke about the devil as the “Great Accuser” who “roams the world looking how to blame” and spread scandal.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former nuncio of the United States, who has called on Pope Francis to resign, claiming the Pope knew about and ignored the sexual misconduct of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, issued another statement on September 27 accusing the Pope of “subtle slander” with that homily.