Special to The Hays Daily News

A public square rosary rally was at noon Oct. 16 at the Lourdes Grotto beside St. Joseph Catholic Church in Liebenthal.

The rally was sponsored by America Needs Fatima and joined 5,000 others being held throughout the country at exactly the same time: noon. The time was important, as it was near the time that the miracle of the sun took place in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.

Organized and conducted by Judy Hoffman, OPA, with the help of Louise Dechant, Gloria Anders and Mary Ann Legleiter following a format suggested by America Needs Fatima, 16 participants prayed the rosary and the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Louis de Montfort, a Dominican who was devoted to the rosary and the Blessed Mother, was the first Rosary Rally Captain when he encouraged a family in Rennes, France, to pray the rosary in the public square to ward off hoodlums, wild and reckless behavior, and other decadent actions. This turned the tide in their town and showed the power of the rosary.