Family Rosary Crusade

the Philippine religious program

Family Rosary Crusade is a worldwide campaign that eventually became a Catholic movement, which was founded by Patrick Peyton, an Irish American priest who is being considered for sainthood by the Vatican. The endeavor came to be a personal mission to undertake the promotion of the praying of the Rosary by families as a means to unite them. The campaign's objective is to promote the praying of the Rosary by families. Peyton believed that together as a family, in unison praying the Rosary, the family is united before Christ and drawn closer to God.

Patrick Peyton was born to an Irish Catholic family, at a time of hardships in the early years of the 20th century. His family were staunchly Catholic farmers, who prayed the Rosary together as a regular practice. As a child, Peyton had inclinations to pursue a vocation as a priest. Due to poverty and the need to help his family earn a living, that pursuit did not bear fruit until he was already in his twenties as an immigrant in the United States. Peyton entered Moreau Seminary at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. In 1941 he learned that he had tuberculosis. He immersed himself in meditation while praying the Rosary. A few months later, doctors discovered that the tuberculosis had disappeared. Peyton attributed his cure to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Peyton was passionate over the spiritual welfare of families, especially those living in squalor who were affected by the Great Depression.

Upon receiving his first assignment as a newly ordained priest in 1941, Father Peyton was assigned as a chaplain for a school managed by the Congregation of Holy Cross in Albany, New York. As a school chaplain in New York, Father Peyton lived a modest life and in his bedroom cell was a small bed, a study table and a painting of the Madonna and Child by Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Peyton was drawn to the painting, which would serve as the main image of the Virgin Mary for the entirety of his Family Rosary Crusade efforts. The Murillo painting was first used as the cover for a pamphlet called "The Story of the Rosary". Father Peyton discovered his mission in 1942 while reading about the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Soldiers of Lepanto, with no hope of winning the war against the Moors, knelt and prayed the Rosary before a perceived losing battle. The Moors were defeated and pushed back. This incident, attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Mother, would serve as the preliminary foundations of establishing the crusade of prayer. Peyton began writing to bishops, priests and Catholic lay organizations about the importance of families praying the Rosary. With the help of the Holy Cross Sisters in Albany and a friend, Father Francis Woods, Peyton began his appeals to promote the praying of the Rosary for all families.

With the help of Hollywood personalities, Peyton began to produce from Hollywood, family values oriented radio dramas for Mutual under the banner of "Family Theater of the Air". The first broadcast was made on February 13, 1947, with guest artists Loretta Young, James Stewart (who was not a Catholic) and Don Ameche. Others who also lent their talents were: Pat O'Brien, Grace Kelly, James Cagney, Bob Hope, Irene Dunne, Gregory Peck, Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Rosalind Russell, Jack Benny, Raymond Burr, Barbara Stanwyck, Margaret O'Brien, Helen Hayes, Natalie Wood, Maureen O'Hara, Jane Wyatt, Ronald Reagan, William Shatner, James Dean and Shirley Temple. The Family Theater radio programs continued to air until 1969. The program gave rise to the establishment of Family Theater Productions, which opened offices in Hollywood with the mission of developing Christian family values film, radio, television programs and billboards.

A young ad executive and copywriter, Al Scalpone, donated his services to Family Theater in 1947 and wrote the now famous slogan, "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together" as well as "A World at Prayer is a World at Peace" for the radio series. They became the mottos for Father Peyton and his organization. Scalpone, who eventually became a vice president for CBS TV, volunteered with Family Theater Productions for 40 years. In 1947, a Los Angeles outdoor advertising company representative was taken by the slogan, "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together", he heard on the Family Theater radio series. The company offered to put the slogan on vacant billboards as a public service. The idea caught on with other advertising companies. Over the years messages included "Troubled? Try Prayer! ", "Don't Give Up! Pray. It Works! ", "God Makes House Calls", and "God Listens" each one followed by "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together". These messages have appeared on more than 100,000 billboards throughout the country, courtesy of outdoor advertising associations and companies, and have been seen more than 400 million times, according to outdoor advertising associations' estimates. The campaign continues today with three new, contemporary posters designed in 2001, which have received a record number of orders from billboard companies.

In 1947, the Diocese of London, Ontario, pioneered the diocesan crusades. The Diocesan Family Rosary Crusade started in Canada with the gathering of pledges from families to commit to the daily prayer of the Rosary as a family unit. The first large scale Rosary rally was in Saskatchewan, Canada, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, then under the authority of the Benedictines of St. Peter's Abbey, and with the participation of the Bishops of Saskatchewan, where 12,000 attended the rally on September 26, 1948. In Manila in the Philippines, a million people came together to pray the Rosary. There were also large rallies in Bogotá, Bombay, Johannesburg, Madrid, New York City, San Francisco and Nairobi. Starting in 1959, Peyton's activities in Latin America were subsidized in part by the CIA, which saw them as an effective counter to communism. The funding continued until the Vatican was made aware of it and directed Peyton to stop accepting the money. In 1987, Pope John Paul II said, "May the Rosary once more become the accustomed prayer of the Christian family." Though there are no Rosary rallies on the scale that Father Peyton had during his lifetime, groups all over the world conduct smaller rosary rallies.

After Father Peyton died in 1992, the Congregation of Holy Cross re organized all component units founded by the Family Rosary Crusade under an umbrella ministry, Holy Cross Family Ministries, which remains committed to the original cause of Father Peyton, to promote and support the spiritual well being of the family. Family Rosary and Family Rosary International encourage family prayer, especially the Rosary. Family Theater Productions directs its efforts to the evangelization of culture using mass media to entertain, inspire and educate families. The Father Peyton Family Institute focuses on research and education in family life ministry and the relationship of spirituality to family. Holy Cross Family Ministries is based in North Easton, Massachusetts.