Joliet Diocese's 'Operation Rosary Bowl' offers prayers for troops

Published: 2007-05-23

KANKAKEE, Ill. (CNS) -- Catholic youths from the Joliet Diocese formed a 30-foot human rosary May 19 on Armed Forces Day to pray for America's soldiers. The participants, students at five area Catholic high schools, spread across Bishop McNamara High School's Memorial Field in Kankakee in five different colors, making up the beads of the giant rosary. They took turns reciting the prayers during the evening event, "Operation Rosary Bowl." About 200 people sat in the stadium bleachers or on lawn chairs and blankets on the field. Jeri Bollwit, a member of St. Teresa Parish in Kankakee, had the idea for sponsoring the rosary bowl and described it as a "wonderful opportunity to show our Catholic faith in such a positive manner." Bollwit's husband, Mike, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, recently returned home from a 45-day tour of duty in Afghanistan. During the event, Julia Bollwit, a fourth-grader at Aquinas Catholic Academy, publicly presented her father with a corded rosary she made for him at school.

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