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The primary thing accomplished by the release of this encyclical was that in the blink of an eye, Rosarium Virginis Mariae rendered all previous writings on the Rosary OBSOLETE. From now on, any Catholic desiring literature on the Rosary will be steered toward some modern, phenomenological feel-good books solely because they "have all the mysteries," unlike pre-Vatican II books!

I find it outrageous that Pope John Paul II believes that unless he saves the day by tinkering with Our Lady's Rosary, the Rosary will fail!

Otherwise there is a risk that the Rosary would not only fail to produce the intended spiritual effects, but even that the beads, with which it is usually said, could come to be regarded as some kind of amulet or magic object. (RVM #28)

Unbelievable!

One motive behind this innovation is to undermine Our Lady of Fatima, who requested that Catholics say one third of the Rosary daily. Now that means 6.66 decades!

In RVM, the pope asks Catholics to stop saying the "Fatima Prayer" at the end of each decade! He does not name it specifically, but in #35 he desires that the "current practice" of ending each decade with a prayer of "custom" would "better" be replaced with some to-be-announced prayers specific to each mystery!

I have trouble believing that RVM was really written by John Paul II, whose reputation is of having a strong Marian devotion, especially for Our Lady of Fatima! In #38 the author of RVM believes that the "current practice" is to say the Glorious Mysteries on Sunday throughout the entire year! How could the pope have made such a mistake?

The association of Our Lady's Psalter with David's Psalter is intrinsic, and should not be tampered with.

#38 is also strange when the pope says that only contemplative religious and bed-ridden laypersons have the spare time to recite the full Rosary. I know many laypersons who have made the commitment to set aside the time throughout the day to recite all 15 decades. Roughly it means setting aside about 60 minutes or so from their busy schedules. But now, with the number of beads boosted to 200, this starts to approach the need for a layperson to set aside something more like an hour and a half from his schedule, and will thus discourage daily recitation of the full Rosary by laypersons!

Until October 2002, the Rosary was the only major Catholic institution to escape renovation. The Mass was changed to accommodate Vatican II's new ecumenical religion, we now have a "new theology," a "new evangelization," a new catechism, a new Code of Canon Law, Religious Orders liberalized their Rules and Constitutions, seminaries "loosened up," church interiors were gutted, the Breviary was revolutionized, Pope John Paul II changed the traditional Way of the Cross in 1991, adding a fifteenth Station. --from the rest of the article (click on the "source").

Yes, in case you didn't know, the Stations of the Cross were "updated" and "improved" by Pope John Paul II in 1991. No doubt, they were on the verge of failing, also.

"When one lives by novelty, there will always have to be a new novelty."
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

It's just tampering for the sake of tampering. And here again, the primary effect is to render all previous writings about the Stations of the Cross obsolete and unusable.

The rosary is a man made prayer, originally it was 150 our father prayers in place of the 150 psalms.

There are many many other "rosaries". There are several scriptural rosaries, which have bible verses before each prayer. There is the Pro Life Rosary, which meditates on various levels of Christ's life and we meditate on how this is connected with threats against life today. The Divine Mercy chaplet is said on rosary beads. The Franciscan rosary has seven decades. The Angel rosary had seven groups of three. The Seven sorrows chaplet has seven groups of seven. I often pray the rosary of peace, where you pray for peace at various levels: self, family, town, country, world.

The rosary is not a dogma, nor even an important part of Catholicism. It is a "pious practice".

You don't like it? Fine.

Since you can read and write, try saying the Divine Office instead. You can buy it on Ebay for less than $100, and the shortened version for about $10.

And stop complaining about trivia. Prayer is lifting your heart and mind to God. Without this part of prayer, the rosary is just repeating useless words.

This is the most absurd thing I have ever read. The Pope drew attention to the Rosary in a way that has renewed interest and has renewed the praying of the Rosary. He commended to the Church the Luminous Mysteries as a suggestion not a command. He shared with the world the insights of a precious Maltese saint. He invited us to meditate upon the marvellous and sublime moments of the life and ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ and again has shown himself to be nothing less that the spiritual director of the world.

I hope the ultratrads vomit up more of this garbage so we will know them by their stench.

ultima ratio,

In your posts you use the words of the Catholic faith, but every single one of your posts on this thread is written in darkness and drips with evil.

I believe you have been sent here by satan to disrupt and divide the Catholics who have worked hard to forge a common witness. I know that means nothing to you, but I serve you notice. I know who you are and who you serve. Perhaps you are not even aware how much you are in the devil's thrall. But your posts are a testimony to how deceived you are and how systematically you and your ilk are trying to deceive faithful and traditional Catholics. If there is any well meaning soul who is sucked in by you and your posts, I urge them to run as far as they can from you.

Fascinating. As luck would have it, just a few days before His Holiness released this Apostolic Letter, our newly ordained priest gave me a copy of de Montford's, The Secret of the Rosary.

Initially, I was excited about the introduction of five, new mysteries. Then, as I began reading de Montford, I, too, became disturbed about the change from the traditional 150, which corresponds so nicely to the Psalms, to 200, also. I even joked with our other priest that now de Montford would have to go back and revise his book. (Yes, I know he is long gone from this world.)

And that got me to thinking. As others in this thread have pointed out, the addition of this five, new mysteries does, in a way, devalue much beautiful devotional literature like de Montford's.

I'm kind of relieved to see this article since I thought I was the only one disturbed by this. Let me see if I can offer an analogy.

Recently, the church in which my wife and I were married was renovated. Now, to be fair, the new part is NOT one of these theatre-in-the-round garage monstrosities which so blemish many 'renovated' Catholic Churches. Indeed, its quite beautiful in and of itself.

However, its just sort of 'stuck on' to the old Church. It doesn't really match the previous architecture. As another priest has commented on it, rather wittily I think, "some parts of the new church are less intolerable than others." Its not that the new church addition isn't beautiful, standing alone it would be great. Its just that rammed on to the old church it looks, well, weird, and this "weirdness" detracts from the beauty of each part.

I'm worried these new mysteries could do the same. And I'm beginning to think His Holiness is approaching much of his dealings with the Church in the same manner. Rather than directly confronting the current 'archeticture of the Church,' he seems to be just trying to make things better by tacking on new things, hoping they'll cover up the actual problems.

Read de Montford's, The Secret of the Rosary. His love and devotion -the tender care he brings to his subject- cannot help but lead one to wonder if maybe tacking on five new mysteries may not be as good an idea as it initially sounds.