Family Rosary International
SPAIN
Campaign for prayer in the family
Country Demographics/Culture
Spain is a country of Europe with about 40 million inhabitants. The official language is Spanish. In some regions they speak Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque or another dialect. Ninety percent confess that they are Christian and baptized. It is mission land more all the time, as is all of old Europe. The state is nondenominational. There are some attacks on the Church and an opportunity to strike out against Christian morals is all the more common. There are some communications media that systematically do it almost all the time. The values they advocate are hedonism, consumerism, eroticism, and free love.
History of Ministry in Country
Father Peyton started the Crusade of the Rosary in the Family in the 1950s. He filmed the movies in Spain in the Seville Film Studio, which no longer exists. During this time, there were hundreds of thousands of people praying the Rosary, reflecting on the mysteries, from government ministers to bullfighters. Following these years, the era of persecution caused many people to be sacrificed because of their Catholic faith. Father Santiago started to work on the Campaign for Prayer in the Family in 1978. There were a number of priests who assisted with the ministry during that year and in 1979 Father Luis Palomo joined the team. In 1980, Rosary in the Family gained legal status in Spain, having the same recognition enjoyed by any order or religious entity.
Ministry Today
Today the ministry is active through the Campaign of Prayer in the Family. This is achieved in three ways: to promote the Christian life of the family, to awaken the consciousness of parents and to get the faithful to participate in the life of the parish community. This program involves the assistance of many people who need to go through a training program. One of the highlights of the program is the family visit where people go out two by two to visit families and invite them to come for an evening on prayer. Afterwards the follow up is to form prayer groups, which meet each month. Fr, Luis Palomo, OP, continues to achieve great success with this Campaign.