Next 3 May 2023 will mark 250 years since the arrival of the image of the Virgin of the Rosary. It came from Cadiz, Spain, and substitutes the primitive image that was there. For 250 years this image of the Virgin of the Rosary has been venerated in the chapel built at the origins of the city and which gives it its name; and it gave its name also to the archdiocese. She is rightly referred to with the title of Patroness and Foundress. A year of grateful remembrance, to strengthen our Christian roots, to live the present in an impassioned way and to look to the future with hope.

The motto, “With Mary of the Rosary, let us be missionaries for peace”. Being instruments of peace. Bringing Christ, who is our peace, to hearts, to families, to all of society. Living in peace with oneself, in the family, in the neighbourhood, in society.

The context is that, instead of being in peace, we see violence everywhere, violence in the city, insecurity. In the majority of cases, it is violence produced by drug trafficking. In 2022 so far, we can count 240 deaths from this cause, including many innocent people, children, adults and the elderly. This is what violence is.

Let us place families under the protection of Mary, especially those who suffer poverty, destitution, lack of employment, those who suffer from addiction.

Let us also place vocations under the care of the Mother of God, working for a vocational culture: vocations to marriage, to consecrated life, to the priesthood. Called to consecrate life to something, in a family or in ministerial service.

This must be a year to reevaluate the gift of the Marian Shrine of the Archdiocese: the Mother Church, today Cathedral and Basilica in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary. Let us invite all the parishes, schools and institutions to go on a pilgrimage to the Shrine in search of grace, where one experiences the love of the Mother, the proximity of Christ and the mercy of the Father, through the sacrament of Reconciliation and the indulgences the Church offers.

Brothers and sisters, this is a Marian year, a year in which the Church reaches out to everyone, with an open heart. She reaches out with a missionary heart; she reaches out with a missionary face.

May the Virgin accompany you on this journey.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 9 December 2022