It is therefore right and expedient, Venerable Brothers, that we ask all our children, and that you in turn exhort them, to celebrate the coming month of October, dedicated to our Lady and the august Queen of the Rosary with an increase of devotion which the ever mounting needs of the times demand.

It is only too plain by how many and what means of corruption the wickedness of the world strives to weaken and entirely uproot Christian faith and the observance of the divine law which nourishes faith and causes it to bear fruit. Already the Lord's field, devastated as it were by a terrible pestilence, is almost covered with a vegetation of religious ignorance, with errors and vices. And to add to the anguish of this thought, far from putting a check on such insolent and culpable perversity or imposing just punishment, those who can and should correct such matters seem in many cases by their indifference or open connivance to increase the power of evil.

We, therefore, have good reason to deplore the fact that public institutions in which the sciences and arts are taught are systematically organized in such a way that God's name is either not mentioned or is desecrated. We have good reason to deplore the license, which is becoming more impudent by the day, of the press in publishing whatever it pleases, and the license of speech in hurling every kind of insult against Christ our God and the Church. No less to be deplored is the abandonment and neglect of the practice of the Catholic religion which have resulted for many, and which, if not quite open apostasy from the faith, is certainly going to prove an easy road to it, since their way of life no longer has anything in common with faith. He who ponders this disorder and corruption of the most important things will not be surprised if the afflicted nations are groaning under the weight of God's wrath and are trembling in the apprehension of even worse calamities.

Now, to appease the offended justice of God and to obtain the needed healing for those who suffer, there is nothing better than pious and persevering prayer, provided it be joined with the zeal and practice of Christian life. We believe these must be obtained mainly through the recitation of the Rosary in honor of Mary.