Rosaries shipped across globe

By Margie Sumnicht
Special to The Compass

	Stewardship Stewardship: A Way of Life is the diocesan thrust. It invites Catholics to acknowledge that all of life is a gift of God and to respond through prayer, service and sharing. This series will look at ways to do that.

It all began in 2002, when Charlie first contacted the World Mission Office with the idea of collecting rosaries from all the parishes in the Diocese for the purpose of shipping them to missionaries. Charlie and his daughter had been sending rosaries to a mission in Africa and wondered if we knew of other missions with this need.

At that time, in our Projects Available Booklet, there was a project placed by Sr. Xavier Valiakunnackal of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth requesting rosaries, medals and religious pictures for her continued retreat work in India. Charlie felt the people of the Diocese of Green Bay could be an answer to her prayers. Little did any of us realize that his phone call would be the beginning of a "Rosary Mission" in our diocese.

Shortly after his call, a notice was sent to each parish asking them to conduct a "rosary collection." Not certain what kind of response we would get, we waited patiently for our first boxes of rosaries to come in. And come they did!

Within a few months, the World Missions Office was filled with box upon box of rosaries donated from parishioners in just about every parish in our diocese and many, many more came from rosary making groups. True to his word, as soon as we could sort, count and prepare a box of rosaries for shipping, Charlie would bring in a check to cover the cost of shipping.

The exact number of rosaries we've distributed since that time, either shipped or distributed to visiting missionaries, has never been kept but I can attest to the fact that over the years thousands of rosaries have been sent or distributed to missionaries from the people of our diocese.

Since his initial call, Charlie's dedication to this rosary mission has been steadfast. And thanks to the support of so many "rosary groups," this year we've been able to ship out close to 1,000 rosaries every month to countries all over the world. Just when we think our list of requests is growing smaller, new ones come in.

I'm not sure that we'll always be able to continue this mission; rising postage rates and the discontinuance of "surface mail" in many foreign countries has been a source of discouragement. (The average monthly shipping cost is $152, which Charlie pays.) With God's help and the continued support of our rosary makers and financial donors like Charlie, we hope that it will continue for many years.

If you are interested in being a part of this Rosary Mission, helping to defray shipping costs or donating rosaries, contact the World Missions Office at (920) 272-8192 (or e-mail wmissions@gbdioc.org). A donation to help with shipping costs can be sent to:

World Mission Services, PO Box 22128, Green Bay, WI 54305-2128.

Sumnicht is coordinator of the World Missions Office.