Africa/Guinea Bissau - Rosary beads around ankles of fashion models: a false scandal
Bissau (Fides Service) - With regard to reports of rosary beads around the ankles of top fashion models in Paris, Fides Service spoke with Sr Rosaria who has been on mission for 30 years in a remote village in Guinea Bissau, one of the world's poorest countries. "Perhaps fashion designers think this will cause a scandal among believers but they fail to see that the real scandal is the poverty of so many people in such a large part of the world. Many of the expensive materials and the precious jewels worn by the ladies of opulent high society in the west, are produced in developing countries and paid a tiny fraction of their market value. We poor people will continue to war our rags and carry our rosary beads, and leave the rich to their arrogance". (Fides Service 22/10/2002)

Asia/India - For us the rosary is a link with heaven: it helps put a smile on the faces of our disabled children
New Delhi (Fides Service) - "If only those beautiful girls realised the value of the Rosary!" was the first comment offered to Fides Service by Sister Leela, who works with disabled children in a village in Karnataka state in southern India when asked her opinion with regard to rosary beads around the ankles of top models. The Indian sister shared her own feelings about the Rosary Prayer: "The Pope has called for a Rosary Year, which will help us to draw closer to Our Mother in heaven. The daily Rosary prayer obtains us the grace to help our disabled children to smile again. If only those models knew the value of the rosary! It is a direct link with heaven, a link with Jesus and Mary. I would say to them: Use the rosary to pray and you will see the joy it brings. With the help of Mary difficulties and problems disappear." (Fides Service 22/10/2002)

America/Brazil - Shantytown poor love their rosary beads which keep flame of hope alive
Sao Paulo (Fides Service) - "Paris creativity has launched the fashion of rosary sandals?…What will this mean to the poor in Brazil's shanty towns?" The question is raised by Fr Antonio Keller, for 16 years parish priest in the outskirts of Sao Paulo. "For my people the rosary beads serve to keep hope alive, they accompany prayers of trust and confidence to Our Lady and they can certainly never be turned into a consumer product. But this is the world of today. The rich have their designer clothes and we have our rosary beads. Certainly, in our prayers, we poor people will not forget the poor rich people." (Fides Service 22/10/2002)

Oceania/Samoa - We teach our people to love and live the Rosary says only priest in Funafuti
Tuvalu (Fides Service) - The only Catholic priest at Funafuti, a group of 9 islands in the Pacific, tells Fides Service: "the Bishops of the Islands taught us to pray and love the rosary. Mother Teresa of Calcutta often said that the richest countries are in fact the poorest. Perhaps ankle bracelets made of rosary beads are a sign of this poverty. We know beads are only beads, but the prayers we recite with our beads recall the story of the Redemption of the world. The mysteries of the life and death and resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world." (Fides Service 22/10/2002)