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I noticed a few years ago that many young people including many blacks were wearing rosaries around their necks for some reason.

Quote from: TKGS

Quote from: Centroamerica

Maybe I'm incorrect, but I doubt the gang affiliation attributed with wearing a Rosary.

Yes.  You are incorrect.  There are gangs in America who have adopted the wearing of rosaries as a symbol of affiliation.  

I was a volunteer at the local juvenile hall for several years, during which time I saw the transition in L.A. from giving out rosaries to the prisoners and praying the Rosary with them, to no more praying the Rosary allowed and instead we were supposed to LISTEN to them, to no more rosaries being distributed at all.  

The reason for stopping the distribution was that it had become commonplace in all of the penal detention system in California for prisoners to use the wearing of a rosary as some kind of silent message or gang affiliation or act of aggression or violation of territorial rights or whatever.  The point is, fighting was breaking out over someone wearing a rosary in a place where someone else interpreted it as a sign of effrontery or insult or disrespect (they say "dis" like, "he dissed me").  

So here in the Southwest (and apparently that now includes Texas!) there indeed is a connotation of gang affiliation with the wearing of a rosary as a necklace.

You can go online and find extremely expensive rosaries with beads made of gemstones, such as diamonds, and connecting chain, centerpiece and crucifix made of solid precious metal, such as sterling silver or 14 kt. gold.   Some of them are up to and/or over $100,000.   These are available because criminals who had become accustomed to having POWER in prison by wearing the rosary, once they get OUT, and resume their drug lord activity, finding themselves in financial position to afford more expensive accessories, have given over to lavish jewels in commemoration of their days in prison.  Many of these costume-designer 'rosaries' do not have the correct number of beads, or are missing one decade so that the crucifix hangs higher and the spacing and lay of the NECKLACE looks more attractive.  When I endeavored to ask about this they responded that it's not being used for prayers, only for wearing as a necklace, and that's why they look this way.

40 grand for a rosary with the wrong layout of beads so you can't pray with it or even get it blessed?  Some crosses have no INRI on them so they're not even a crucifix!  


EVEN  SO, this fact does not diminish the power of the Rosary to convert.  St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort used his rosary as a kind of lasso, such that by placing it over the head of a subject and around his neck, and by gently pulling the rosary toward himself, he could literally 'drag' the person out of the clutches of the devil and bring him to repentance.  He did this numerous times.  And it would not at all surprise me if it can be done as well today -- just make sure you're in the state of grace when you attempt to do it, and provide for the near access to a good priest in due course.

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Quote from: TKGS

It is an unfortunate fact that the article is correct in that some criminal gangs have been wearing rosaries as a sign of gang affiliation.  

If this is an area where gang activity is high, the officer had reason to suspect criminal activity, especially if the boy really did resist.  This is a sad reality of the day.

Maybe I'm incorrect, but I doubt the gang affiliation attributed with wearing a Rosary.  I heard this rumor when I was in San Salvador, but I wore my Rosary anyways.  There is some sort of a trend associated with it, but I wore it so I wouldn't lose it.  I eventually did lose it on my way to Mass for the very reason that it wasn't around my neck (and it was a nice wooden one of the Virgin of Guadalupe that I haven't been able to find since).  Even if underneath my shirt not to be sporting it as a fad, but to know always where it was...my Mom taught me since a kid not to wear the Rosary, that it wasn't for that, but anybody who has read the Secret of the Rosary remembers the story of the king who wore the Rosary but never prayed it and was given a second chance by Our Lady....

It's only a trend that is not associeted with any gang that I know of...bloods, crips, vice lords, GDs, Latin Kings, MS 13, sureños, 18th street...none of them have wearing the Rosary as an indicator of affiliation.  I'm no expert, but that's my opinion based on what I've seen, which is unfortunately probably more than some...


On the good side, the fact that this kid is being detained and punished for the mere fact of wearing his Rosary, may actually serve to make him more devoted to the Rosary...at least that is what I have seen in the past.