José Andrés Calderón: Praying the Holy Rosary has radically changed my life

Barely after his first quarter of a century of life, José Andrés Calderón went with a megaphone and a rosary in his hands to the entrance steps to the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception located on Ferraz Street in Madrid (Spain) on November 12, 2023 .

Then the Rosario de Ferraz was born, an initiative that tried to contribute a transcendent attitude and vision to the protests that, for days before, had been taking place in the place against the post-electoral pacts led by the President of the Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez.

These agreements were branded as “immoral” by some Spanish bishops and generated a social and political crisis that was analyzed by the Spanish Episcopal Conference.

For the first 15 days, the prayer of what has come to be known as Rosario de Ferraz passed without difficulty or impediment. However, on Monday, November 27, 2023, 20 police officers from the riot units showed up with an order to prevent the prayer.

In addition, the prohibition on praying for the following three days was communicated. Only a massive presence of faithful who faced the police pressure ordered by the Government by showing their rosaries managed to ensure that the fundamental right to religious freedom was not violated.

In the month of May 2023, fines began to arrive from the Government Delegation, which already exceed 5,000 euros and against which Calderón has filed the pertinent administrative appeals, although he predicts that the matter will end up in court.

And to this day, despite everything, they have continued to pray day after day, in an unprecedented display of Marian devotion and the social and political commitment of ordinary Catholics that has transcended borders.

Along the way, many have learned to pray the Rosary, others have experienced a conversion in their lives, at least one woman of Jewish origin will receive baptismal waters soon and thousands pray from their living rooms following the initiative through the networks. social.

Calderón explains that the experience has also transformed him: “Praying the Holy Rosary has radically changed my life,” he says, both personally, sentimentally and professionally.

His determination, despite the dangers, remains intact: “We will pray for Spain and for the conversion of the world with or without government permission.”

What have been the biggest difficulties?

There have been many difficulties. Praying for more than 370 days, per se, is complicated. The course of a winter, a spring, a summer and an autumn is a long journey through which many things happen to you. In Rosario itself, but also on a personal level in all spheres of my life. It’s not easy to lose friends and people that you would never think would betray or leave you aside.

From the beginning there was strong pressure for us to stop praying. However, we understood that it was time for lay people committed to Christ, Mary and Spain. A few weeks after starting to pray we began to suffer a relentless judicial and administrative journey: prohibitions, fines, trials and threats. Even recently, the Government delegate himself, in El País, acknowledged that he was looking for ways to send us to pray in a dark park.

Having said all this, these and many other difficulties are absolutely bearable when you try to always keep God and our Mother in Heaven in mind as squires. If I’m honest, if you had asked me a year ago what we were going to be doing this long, I would have told you it was impossible. However, nothing is unrealizable if we have Christ as our main reference.

I threw myself earthily into the void. The day the Government forbade me to pray, I knew that if I went, everything would change for me.

What concrete fruits has God given to society through this initiative?

There are many. Maybe it’s time to consider writing a book about everything that happens every afternoon. Through the Rosario de Ferraz, courtships and even a wedding have been generated. It is incredible to witness how, through the Virgin, two people can come together and radically change their lives. And all this, being a witness to this process.

On the other hand, every afternoon thousands of people from all over the world pray with us. In just ten months, our YouTube channel, “Rosary in Ferraz”, has achieved more than a million views. I know that many afternoons entire families pray with us from their living rooms. People from all over the world and then, some of them, come in person to pray at the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Catholics from all over Spain and the world have expressly come to the stairs to join us in person.

However, the greatest achievements are the notable number of people who have learned to pray the Rosary thanks to this initiative; It is seeing how men who told us to go pray at the temple are now with us; or the cases of a Jewish woman who is going to be baptized in a few months or a woman who is going to be confirmed in June. All this thanks to our Captain.

Personally, how has this experience impacted your life of faith?

Praying the Holy Rosary has radically changed my life. It’s something I haven’t told anyone. Everything they say is true regarding the fact that praying the Rosary generates internal changes so profound that they are surprising.

God has always been present in my life. Now, since I decided to pick up the megaphone on November 12, 2023, everything has taken a 180-degree turn in my life project. Personally, sentimentally and professionally.

All the plans I had suddenly disappeared and my priority has been, and continues to be, daily prayer in Ferraz. I have been more aware of Christ’s words in Luke 9:25: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or ruins himself?”

Each afternoon praying the Rosary leads you to intense moments of reflection with Christ, through Mary. You realize how things that you considered essential in your life were not so essential and how others have become irreplaceable. You delve into the fact that, at the end of all, to dust we are and to dust we will become. Or, put in more hopeful and Augustinian terms, that our final homeland lies in Heaven.

In the end, when I witnessed that everything I had in mind on my life horizon was disappearing and how some did not understand my decisions… I threw myself earthly into the void. The day the Government forbade me to pray, I knew that if I went, everything would change for me. However, I already knew that there was no option. We must obey God before men (Acts 5, 29). I deeply felt that Christ had sent me as a mission to accompany the Virgin every afternoon to pray for the Salvation of Spain and the entire world.

At the time, explained to Cardinal Omella that this activity put his future job as a Police inspector at risk. Has this come to fruition in any way? Have you changed your mind about professional development?

The truth is that fines and government pressure make it difficult. In this opposition one of the tests is an interview. In it, they look at your criminal and administrative “records”. Consequently, they would see almost 6,000 euros in fines for disobedience to authority.

As you will understand, it is the perfect excuse to kick me out of the selection process. “How are you going to lead teams as an inspector if you have publicly demonstrated that you follow your religious convictions rather than obey the authority to which you are subject as a member of the National Police Corps?”

Currently, the Rosary of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is my priority and will remain so as long as we continue there. Thank God, I have gotten a job that, with effort and sacrifice, allows me to go every afternoon to pray. Regarding what will become of my life in the medium and long term, as I have already said, I have entrusted it to Him and Her. May Christ and Mary decide about my path.

What is the situation with everything related to fines and judicial issues?

We are appealing each and every fine. They are still in the administrative process. We’ll probably have to go to court. We are prepared for everything.

On the other hand, we have presented an appeal to the ECHR for violation of the right to religious freedom and the right of assembly. As I have always said, we will exhaust all possible avenues to defend the right of Catholics to pray in public.

It is inadmissible that political power can arbitrarily and without any judgment of proportionality prohibit praying to God. This only happens in despotic and tyrannical regimes, no matter how much they disguise themselves under democratic fabrics.

What future awaits this call to pray the Rosary publicly on a daily basis?

Only God will tell. There will probably be a day when we will not pray every day on those stairs and other alternatives will open up. It is a difficult decision that I will say in due time and that I will make after praying about it a lot.

Until then we will continue praying every afternoon at 7:30 p.m. Personally, it is a gift to be praying every day with what is already a family: the family of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We will pray for Spain and for the conversion of the world with or without government permission. We will pray until the last day with Faith, devotion and love. Whether in Ferraz or anywhere else, this journey has only just begun.