Presentation of the smart rosary: Click to Pray eRosary

In the middle of the Extraordinary Missionary Month, set forth by the Holy Father, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network has just launched the Click To Pray eRosary, which – as its name suggests – is a smart rosary that pursues a clear purpose: to pray for peace in the world.

What is it about?

The Click To Pray eRosary is an interactive, smart and app-driven device that serves as a tool for learning how to pray the rosary. It can be worn as a bracelet and is activated by making the sign of the cross. It is synchronized with a free app of the same name, which allows to access to an audio guide, exclusive images and personalized content about the praying of the Rosary. As such, this spiritual proposal is within the reach of everyone. Aimed at the peripheral frontiers of the digital world where the young people dwell, the Click To Pray eRosary serves as a technology-based pedagogic tool for teaching the young how to pray the Rosary, how to pray it for peace, and how to contemplate the Gospel. Therefore, this project brings together the best of the Church’s spiritual tradition and the latest advances of the technological world.

Physically, the device consists of ten consecutive black agate and hematite rosary beads, and of a smart cross which stores all the technological data connected to the app. When activated, the user has the possibility to choose either to pray the standard rosary, a contemplative Rosary and different kinds of thematic rosaries that will be updated every year. Once the prayer begins, the smart rosary shows the user’s progression throughout the different mysteries and keeps track of each rosary completed.

The Click To Pray family

Many users will be pleased to know that this smart rosary belongs to the same family as Click To Pray, the official prayer app of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (where Pope Francis has his own personal profile) that connects thousands of people around the globe to pray every day. Along this line, the Click To Pray eRosary is also intended to accompany him in his daily and monthly intentions in order to build a world with the flavour of the Gospel.

Why now? The Extraordinary Missionary Month

This smart rosary, moreover, arrives at a very special moment for the Church: in mid-October, at the heart of the Extraordinary Missionary Month, set also by Pope Francis through the Pontifical Mission Societies. Pope Francis, at the 175-year celebration of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, has made it clear that “the heart of the Church’s mission is prayer”.

Who is involved?

The project of the Click To Pray eRosary is an initiative of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, a pontifical work with the mission of mobilizing Catholics through prayer and action, in the face of the challenges confronting humanity and the mission of the Church. They have produced all the special contents of this smart rosary. GadgeTek Inc. (GTI), a tech company dedicated to innovative lifestyle gadgets with operations spanning five continents around the globe, was responsible for the technological design of the wearable device.

The launch event

The launching of the Click To Pray eRosary took place in the Holy See Press Office in a meeting point held today at 11 am before tech and religious media. Fr. Frédéric Fornos, SJ, the International Director of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network (including the Eucharistic Youth Movement), was the first speaker to introduce the project: “The rosary is a beautiful spiritual tradition for contemplating the Gospel with Mary, it is a simple and humble prayer. In a world of indifference and in the face of so many injustices, poverty, elementary rights denied, praying for peace in the world means reconciling ourselves in our daily relationships, with the poorest, with the stranger, with different cultures and spiritual and religious traditions, but also with our land, our forests, our rivers and oceans”.

After him, representatives of several institutions involved in the project addressed the audience mentioning different aspects of the Click To Pray eRosary and pointing out the added value it conveys. In order, after Fr. Fornos, SJ, the speakers were: Msgr. Lucio Ruiz, secretary of the Dicastery for Communication; Mr. Jerry Kao, chairman of GTI; Mr. Juan della Torre, CEO and founder of La Machi Communication for Good Causes; Fr. Tadeusz J. Nowak, OMI, secretary general of the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith (POPF); and Fr. João Chagas, responsible of the Youth Office of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life.

After the meeting point, journalists and guests had the opportunity to test the Click To Pray eRosary in a demo.

About the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network

The Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network is a pontifical organization with the mission of mobilizing Catholics through prayer and action, in the face of the challenges confronting humanity and the mission of the Church. These challenges are addressed in the form of prayer intentions entrusted by the Pope to the entire Church. Its mission is inscribed in the dynamic of the Heart of Jesus: a mission of compassion for the world. This work was founded in 1844 as the Apostleship of Prayer. It is present in 98 countries and is made up of more than 35 million Catholics. It includes a youth branch, the EYM: Eucharistic Youth Movement. In March 2018, the Pope constituted this ecclesial service as a Pontifical Work and approved its new statutes. Its international director is Father Frédéric Fornos, SJ. More information at: https://www.popesprayer.va

About the Pontifical Mission Societies

The Pontifical Mission Societies is the name of a group of Catholic missionary societies that are under the jurisdiction of the Pope. These organizations include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Holy Childhood Association and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. Since 1922, it has been the Catholic Church’s official support organisation for overseas missions. The Pope specifically asks the Pontifical Mission Societies to help bring the message of Christ to the world, especially in countries where Christianity is new, young or poor. The societies care for and support the younger churches until they are able to be self-sufficient.

About GTI

Founded in 2018, GadgeTek Inc. (GTI) is dedicated to providing smart gadgets that enhance the quality of life. Headquartered in Taiwan, GTI was spun-off from Acer Inc., one of the world’s top ICT companies, and now operates across five continents around the globe. From bringing technology to religious groups, creating devices to monitor air quality and raise alerts, to reimagining the gaming chair, GTI dares to envisage bold ideas and create products fulfilling users’ needs.

About La Machi Communication for Good Causes

La Machi is a communication agency for good causes. Its mission is to help public welfare organizations, religious institutions, human and responsible enterprises and public sector agencies to express all the appealing aspects of transcendental values. It provides services such as corporate visual identity, branding, creativity for global advertising campaigns, graphic design and illustration, digital marketing (websites, social networks, newsletters, web and mobile developments), press and public relations campaigns and strategic communication planning and crisis management.