Television actor Chris Kramer will give a witness talk during the Diocesan Rosary Festival planned for 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria.

The festival serves to open a time of preparation for a special Year of the Most Holy Rosary to be observed in the Diocese of Peoria from Aug. 15, 2009, through May 31, 2010.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, has invited all Catholics to join him for the Diocesan Rosary Festival, which is free and open to the public. In addition to the talk by Kramer — a Canadian actor now living in Hollywood who has appeared in dozens of TV shows including “Jericho,” “24,” and “Saving Grace” — the festival will include a liturgical procession, recitation of a decade of a living rosary, and Marian hymns.

Kramer’s appearance at the festival was arranged through Holy Cross Family Ministries, which is assisting the diocese during this time of emphasis on the rosary. He is one of several celebrities featured in the DVD “Rosary Stars: Praying the Gospel” being produced by Holy Cross Family Ministries and set to make a regional debut in Peoria during 2009.

An active Catholic, Kramer was emcee of The Rosary Bowl, an outdoor rosary last May that drew 40,000 people to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

In his Aug. 22 letter announcing the approaching Rosary Year and its preparation period, Bishop Jenky wrote that he hopes the focus will “reinvigorate the venerable practice of meditating on the Gospel through the prayers of the holy rosary.”

“I ask all of our pastors, with their parish leaders, to begin prayerfully discussing ways to make the rosary a more essential part of our lives,” said the bishop.

The Year of the Most Holy Rosary is scheduled to conclude in 2010 with a major diocese-wide celebration.

For more information on the Diocesan Rosary Festival and preparations for the Year of the Most Holy Rosary, contact the diocesan Office of Family Life, (309) 671-1550.