Among the numerous Pontifical Documents on the Rosary issued by Pope Leo XIII are nine which are classed as Encyclicals.  They clearly indicate the dependence placed by him on the daily recitation of the Rosary, whether said in private, or in the family circle, (as he so greatly desired) or publicly in our Churches.
    In a very special way the present Encyclical is directed towards the solution of our leading social questions.  Three pernicious tendencies in particular the Pope points out and shows how their respective remedies can be found in our meditation on the three groups of mysteries that accompany our recital of the Rosary.  Not merely can we here obtain the light to know truly what is demanded of us, but also the grace to act in accordance with our knowledge.
    But the Rosary is more than merely a personal remedy.  "We are convinced," says Pope Leo in this Encyclical, "that the Rosary, if devoutly used, is bound to benefit not only the individual but society at large."  To bring home to all that truth was his purpose in writing this document, which is therefore strictly of a social nature and constitutes an essential part of his social teaching which may not be overlooked.
    A danger of our social literature is that we do not lay enough strees on prayer, meditation, and other spiritual aids, as if these had no concern with our social problems, whereas a fundamental reason for the existence of them is that men have neglected or even forgotten to pray and to meditate on the mysteries of faith.  To overlook the spiritual remedies for our social problems is ultimately to make all other remedies futile.  It is to block out of consideration the one necessary condition for all social betterment, and that is God.
    The Rosary is a remedy which all can use, from the smallest child to the dear little woman bent with age.  Its musical repetition of the "Our Father" taught by Christ, mingling with the salutation of the Angel to Mary and the inspired greeting of Elizabeth, "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb," and ending with the intimate petition for our Lady's powerful intercession at the throne of her divine Son, and the glory given to the Most Holy Trinity, is a prayer Heaven cannot resist.  In the words of our poet Kilmer:

                                            There is one harp that any hand can play,
                                                And from its strings what harmonies arise!
                                            There is one song that any mouth can say --
                                                A song that lingers when all singing dies.
                                            When on their beads our Mother's children pray
                                                Immoral music charms the grateful skies.

    In fact the "Our Father" and "Hail Mary," of which the Rosary is mainly constituted, are in themselves intensively social prayers.  They include all mankind in their petition: "Thy Kingdom come," "Pray for us sinners."  Of necessity they inculcate the true Christian social spirit wherever these prayers are devoutly recited, with a true recognition of their significance that embraces earth and Heaven.  But the Rosary further adds to them -- what indeed is essential to it -- a meditation on the great mysteries in the life of our Lord and of our Lady.  It is here that we possess a mighty means for that spiritual reformation through which alone the social renovation of  mankind can ever be effected.
    I may be pardoned for quoting in this place from a Preface written by myself for a volume by Father Thomas Schwertner, O.P., listed below, and published shortly after the author's regretted death: "Why, then, in our own perturbed times of Communism and Plutocracy, should not the Rosary be able to achieve results no less wonderful than in the evil days when the Moslem menace threatened to engulf in its resistless deluge the Christian civilization of Europe?  Mightier than the sledge and scythe on the red banner of the Soviets; mightier than the cannon and sword in the mad arbitrament of war; mightier than the gavel and the pen in the high councils of state and the courts of the leagues of nations, is the Rosary of Mary for the protection and the welfare of mankind."
    The reference to the Episcopal Golden Jubilee of the Pontiff, at the beginning of this Encyclical, in not merely incidental.  The splendid display of affection and loyalty in all parts of the earth moved the heart of Pope Leo with a sense of profound gratitude to the Mother of God, to whose patronage he attributed the favors and the graces granted him in his long life of universal benevolence.  To her he further looked with unwavering confidence for future blessings.  His gratitude to her and his supreme desire that all mankind might come to appreciate the benefits to be derived from the Rosary inspired him to write this most pertinent social Encyclical.
    Official Text -- Acta Leonis, 13:283-294; Acta Sanctae Sedis, 26:193-199.
    Schwertner, Thomas, O.P., The Rosary: A Social Remedy (Milwaukee: Burce Pub. Co., 1934).

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