'Champions of the
Rosary'
November 22, 2016
Below is
an email interview I conducted with Father Donald H. Calloway, MIC, regarding
his latest book, Champions of the Rosary. Thanks to Father
Calloway for taking the time to answer my questions. Click here to order
a copy of the book.
Champions of the Rosary is an impressive work
on the powerful private devotion of the rosary. What inspired you to write the
book? How long did it take to complete?
Father Calloway: The world is
fraught with immorality and darkness, and in need of being re-evangelized. The
story of the rosary needs to be told again in all its wonder for the people of
our times. People today need to know about the weapon capable of combating and
conquering immorality and evil. I have written
Champions of the Rosary
for this purpose. Trust me: I know firsthand how the rosary can help a soul
convert. Allow me to explain what the rosary did for me years ago.
When I
first encountered the rosary, I was a sick man – sick in my heart and sick in my
soul. I had been living a very immoral life, to the point where I had to drop
out of high school. I was worldly, hedonistic, and without hope of ever
changing. My life was so out of control that at the age of 15, I was forcibly
removed from the country of Japan due to my criminal activity. (My step-father
was a naval officer at the time). After being deported from Japan, my life of
crime and sin continued. I did two stints in drug rehabilitation centers in
Pennsylvania and was thrown in jail in Louisiana as soon as I turned 18. By the
age of 20, I was completely lost and at the point of taking my own life. I was
about as far away from God as a person can get. In fact, I hated anything
religious, especially anything to do with Jesus and the Catholic
Church.
But one night in 1992, I picked up a book that my parents, who
had recently converted to Catholicism, had purchased and left on their
bookshelf. The book was about a beautiful woman named Mary. It alleged that she
was coming from a place called heaven with a message of love, mercy, and
conversion. I had no idea who Mary was or what a Marian apparition was, but the
message intrigued me, and I stayed up all night reading it. The contents of that
book hit my foul soul like a divine two-by-four, so I went to a Catholic church
the very next day to find a priest and get some answers. That visit was the
first time I had ever been inside a Catholic Church. It was also the first time
I encountered the rosary.
It didn't take long before that little
20-minute prayer helped me fall madly in love with Jesus and Catholicism. The
rosary helped me turn from a life of sin to a life of freedom. It gave me the
courage to surrender my heart, mind, and soul completely to Jesus and his
Church. The Virgin Mary and her rosary saved my life!
Skip forward many
years, and now I'm a Catholic priest. I continue to pray the rosary every day.
It's my daily companion and is
always in my pocket. I don't go anywhere
without it. This is why I have such a passion for the rosary and why I spent
almost three years doing the research and writing necessary for this book. I
want everyone to know the power of the rosary!
Could you share a few
paragraphs of the book – one of your favorite excerpts, perhaps – with my
readers?
Father Calloway: In 1978, the rosary saved a young woman
from being raped and killed by the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. Responsible
for at least 30 brutal and sadistic murders, Ted Bundy was eventually caught and
executed by electric chair in 1989. Before his death, he testified to an aspect
of one of his killing sprees in Florida that not even he understood.
On
the evening of January 15, 1978, Bundy broke into a sorority house at Florida
State University in Tallahassee and brutally assaulted and killed several young
women. However, one of the women in the house remained completely untouched,
even though she had come face-to-face with the killer. When police arrived at
the scene of the brutal murders, they found the young woman in a near catatonic
state, unwilling to speak to anyone but a priest.
A local priest,
Monsignor William Kerr, was called to the scene to speak to the woman. She told
him that after Ted Bundy had killed two of her sorority sisters and severely
harmed two others, he opened the door to her room, ready to kill her. Oddly,
when Bundy opened the door and saw her lying in bed, he dropped his weapon and
ran away. The young woman told Monsignor Kerr that before she had gone off to
college, she had promised her mother that every night before going to bed, she
would pray a rosary for protection. That particular night, she had fallen asleep
while praying the rosary. The rosary was in her hand when Bundy opened the door
and looked at her.
Incredibly, when Ted Bundy was on death row, he asked
for spiritual guidance from Monsignor William Kerr, the same priest that had
talked to the young woman on the night of the murders. In the course of their
conversation, Bundy informed Monsignor Kerr that he had no idea why he had not
killed the young woman. He said that when he had gotten to her room, he had had
every intention of killing her, but a mysterious force prevented him from
entering the room, and he dropped his weapon and fled. He didn't know it, but
that mysterious force was the rosary!
Continued