That’s the name of a Facebook page that caught the attention of a reporter at the Riverside Press-Enterprise in California, and he decided to investigate:

David Calvillo used to think praying the rosary was for “old ladies and funerals.”

Then he went to a Catholic men’s retreat in 2008, where for the first time he felt the rosary’s spiritual power as he prayed it with 79 other men.

Calvillo, 49, is now on a crusade to convince Catholics that “real men pray the rosary,” the name he gave a nonprofit he founded last year.

The rosary, a cycle of prayers said while worshippers finger a string of beads, is not gender-specific. Yet many men say they have always associated the rosary with women, especially older females.

There’s no way to know whether the number of men praying the rosary is increasing, but nearly 9,000 people have indicated they like “Real Men Pray the Rosary” on the group’s Facebook page.
Angel Pérez, 49, of Rialto, changed his view of the rosary after he heard a priest at a Catholic conference several years ago exhort men to pray the rosary to grow spiritually, strengthen their families and serve as an example to their children.

“He said, ‘Prayer is not just for women,’ ” said Pérez, who now regularly recites the rosary with his wife and 15-year-old son. “And I thought, ‘You’re right.’ We men sometimes think that if we pray the rosary that we’re not the same men as before. On the contrary, we are men who are believers in God.”
…

…Calvillo’s website and Facebook page convey a more masculine image than other rosary websites, which sometimes feature pink roses. The group’s symbol is a fist clutching rosary beads, and the website urges the faithful to “Be a Proud Rosary Warrior!”

Some Catholic parents strategize how to make the rosary more appealing to their sons. Many buy increasingly popular “sports rosaries” that feature beads in the shape of footballs, soccer balls, basketballs and hockey pucks.

“I think it’s to entice the kids to use the rosaries,” said Lucy Orr, owner of Rosaries Just for You in Carol Stream, Ill. “If it’s got soccer balls on it and the boy plays soccer, he’s more apt to carry it around with him.”

Rosaries Just for You introduced the sports rosaries three years ago, and they now account for half the company’s sales. Most customers appear to be parents buying the beads for their sons, she said.

Check out the rest.