Pope Leo: The Rosary is the ‘hidden engine that makes everything else possible’ in Pompeii
May 08, 2026
Following a 50-minute helicopter flight, Pope Leo XIV arrived this morning at the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, the first stop in a twelve-hour pastoral visit to Pompeii and Naples.
In an address to those who take part in the shrine’s works of charity (video), Pope Leo said that “it is beautiful for me to begin this pastoral visit in the footsteps of St. Bartolo Longo, whom I had the joy of canonizing last October 19. He called the Valley of Pompeii ‘a place of love that warms the heart,’ a ‘triumph of faith and charity.’“
“Here the ‘Temple of Charity’ and the ‘Temple of Faith’ support each other,” the Pope continued. “Prayer nourishes the welcome, affection, service and generous commitment of so many, in educational centers, in family homes, at the soup kitchen, named after Pope Francis. And love performs miracles that go far beyond all effort and expectations: in the bodies of those who suffer and even more so in souls.”
Pope Leo recalled that when “St. Bartolo arrived for the first time in Valle di Pompei, he found a land afflicted by so much misery, inhabited by a few very poor peasants, ravaged by malaria and brigands. However, he was able to see the face of Christ in everyone: in the great and the small, and in particular in the orphans and children of prisoners, whom he made feel, with his tenderness, the beating of God’s heart.”
The Pope added:
At the base of everything, however, as we have said, there is prayer and in particular the Holy Rosary. Symbolically placed at the foundation of the Sanctuary and the city, it is the hidden engine that makes everything else possible. I therefore recommend that all of you always keep alive and spread this ancient and beautiful devotion, thanks to which, contemplating the Mysteries of Jesus’ life through the simple and maternal eyes of Mary, “what he has done” penetrates our hearts and transforms our lives ...
Dear friends, this is a place of grace, where Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Bartolo bring together men and women of every age, origin and condition, to bring them to the one Source of that universal love which alone can give the world serenity and harmony: to bring them to God. Let us cling to him, as we entrust to him, through the hands of Mary, the whole of humanity, certain that, with the help of his grace, nothing will be able to stop us from doing good, and that hope in a future of peace, here and everywhere, will have its fulfillment.
Coverage of Pope Leo’s pastoral visit to Pompeii and Naples:
- Pope Leo: The Rosary is the ‘hidden engine that makes everything else possible’ in Pompeii
- Pope, in homily at Pompeii, lauds the Hail Mary and the Rosary
- Addressing priests in Naples, Pope emphasizes prayer, fraternity
- Pope challenges citizens of Naples to build an alternative culture to violence
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