Polish Catholics hold national prayer for peace at borders and sea

(7 Oct 2017) Polish Catholics held rosaries and prayed together at hundreds of locations on Saturday along the country's 3,500-kilometre (2,000-mile) border, appealing to the Virgin Mary and God for salvation for Poland and the world.
The unusual event called "Rosary on the Borders" was organised by lay Catholics but also was endorsed by Polish church authorities, with 320 churches from 22 dioceses taking part.
The prayers took place on the Baltic Sea coast in the north to the mountains along Poland's southern borders with the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and all along the other borders of this country of 38 million of whom more than 90 percent identify as Roman Catholics.
Organisers say the event commemorates the centenary of the apparitions of Fatima, when three shepherd children in Portugal said the Virgin Mary appeared to them.
But many people also saw an anti-Islam message in the event, given that it also commemorates the huge 16th-century naval battle of Lepanto, when a Christian alliance defeated Ottoman Empire forces on the Ionian Sea, "thus saving Europe from Islamization," as organisers put it.
While organisers insisted the prayers on Saturday were not directed against any group, some participants cited fears of Islam among their reasons for praying at the border, many coming from afar to do so.
On the Czech-Polish Border near the town of Szklarska Poreba hundreds believers arrived in dozens of buses and cars to the Karkonosze mountain range to walk along the Czech-Polish border.
The young, elderly, and families with children in prams braved the cold and rain showers to participate, holding rosaries in their hands and constantly praying to Virgin Mary.

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