Rome Newsroom, Mar 2, 2022 / 09:15 am (CNA).
Ukraine’s Latin Rite Catholic bishops have asked Pope Francis to consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In a letter to the pope, the Ukrainian bishops said that they were writing “in these hours of immeasurable pain and terrible ordeal for our people” in response to many requests for the consecration.
“Responding to this prayer, we humbly ask Your Holiness to publicly perform the act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Ukraine and Russia, as requested by the Blessed Virgin in Fatima,” said the letter, published on the bishops’ website on Ash Wednesday, March 2.
“May the Mother of God, Queen of Peace, accept our prayer: Regina pacis, ora pro nobis.”
Their request came as Russian forces moved to encircle the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where multiple blasts were reported early Wednesday morning, and troops laid siege to Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
More than 453,000 people have fled to Poland in the past six days, according to the Polish Border Guard agency. On March 1 alone, 98,000 people crossed the border into Poland.
The Ukrainian bishops have also posted on their website an updated Ukrainian text of an act of consecration of Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, asking that it be recited privately and after each Mass.
About 1% of the Ukrainian population are Latin Rite Catholics. They are concentrated in the west of the country, with six dioceses suffragan to the Archdiocese of Lviv of the Latins.
The majority of Catholics in Ukraine belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the largest of the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome. Greek Catholics make up about 9% of Ukraine’s 44 million population, which is predominantly is Orthodox Christian.
Before the revolutions of 1917 that overthrew the Russian Empire and led to the creation of the Soviet Union, Russia was colloquially known as the “house of Mary” because there were more shrines and churches dedicated to Our Lady than in any other country at the time.
During the Fatima apparitions in 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary revealed three secrets.
The second secret was a statement that World War I would end, and a prediction of another war that would start during the reign of Pius XI if people continued to offend God and Russia was not consecrated to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
Sister Lucia, one of the three Fatima visionaries, recalled in her memoirs that Our Lady asked for “the Consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays” to prevent a second world war.
She said that Mary told her: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated.”
“In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
In recent years, Catholic bishops have continued to call for Marian consecrations of their country during times of violence.
In 2018, an archbishop said that Mexico said that the country should be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary due to the prevailing violence, poverty, and corruption.
On Feb. 24, the day that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the bishops’ conference also asked for all Latin Rite Catholics in Ukraine to pray to Our Lady.
“Now is the time to unite in prayer: in our families, with our neighbors, in our prayer communities, and in every parish. We encourage priests from today, after each Holy Mass, in addition to singing the supplication, to pray the Act of Consecration of Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God,” the bishops’ conference wrote.
“We pray the rosary together or other prayers for peace, for the rulers of our state, for our army and all those who defend our homeland, for the wounded and the dead, as well as remembrance for those who started the war and were blinded by aggression,” it said.
“Let us protect our hearts from hatred and anger against our enemies. Christ gives a clear instruction that we should pray for them and bless them.”
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We Catholics can look and laugh at some of the Evangelicals’ obsessive-compulsive fixation on what they call as “apocalyptic” (actually a misnomer) events like wars, disasters, and revolutions as they relate this to their faulty reading and interpretation of the Book of Revelation. Google, for example, Pat Robertson coming out of retirement gleefully just to once again do his signature prognostication about the end-times, this time kicked off by this ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. This for them will also signal the coming of the rapture, armageddon, tribulation. However, we also find a Catholic version of this obsession about the end-times among those who fanatically “over-interpret” the third secret of Fatima declaring that Popes have failed short of totally consecrating Russia to the Blessed Mother to convert Russia and avert wars. Having this perspective, we can understanding this news article here more deeply. Can we also laugh at ourselves?
What they seem to not understand is that Our Lady did not ask for one thing only to secure the conversion of Russia and peace in the world but two things” the Consecration of Russia (done March 25, 1984) AND the First Saturday devotion. The First Saturday is coming up on March 5, perhaps it would be a good time to respond to Our Lady’s second request?
Terri, if you don’t appreciate that it is no time for laughing matters, when the only serious thing happening is that people are being slaughtered, then perhaps you might consider just not posting comments.
Russia and the world have been consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary several times
Pius XII did it, and so did John Paul II and Pope Francis. However, prayers and consecrations only help if they are associated with our commitment to be faithful followers of our Lord, members of his Church and obedient to its teachings.
The Jews had God’s prophets among them, warning and guiding them but, when they did not heed the warnings or teachings, they suffered badly.
https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius12/p12mysti.htm
J.M.J.
“it is not possible to have Sacramental Communion without Ecclesial Communion”, due to The Unity Of The Holy Ghost (Filioque), for it Is “Through Christ, With Christ, And In Christ, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost”, that Holy Mother Church, outside of which, there is no Salvation, due to The Holy Ghost, exists.
Why would there be a need to hold a special if not imperfect council to determine that this statement, which denies that our Call to Holiness is a Call to be chaste in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds, as we must always desire to be “Temples for The a Holy Ghost”. denies The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, is heresy, that can only lead to Apostasy? How exactly can this statement be reconciled to The Word Of God Made Flesh and The Holy Eucharist?
Is this not just a modernist version of The Arian Heresy that denies The Divinity Of The Holy Ghost, and thus The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity?
This is what Jorge Bergoglio said,
prior to his election as pope, on page 117 of his book, On Heaven And Earth, In Regards to same sex “unions”, demonstrating that he does not hold, keep, or teach The Catholic Faith, and he continues to act accordingly:
“If there is a union of a private nature, there is neither a third party, nor is society affected. Now, if the union is given the category of marriage, there could be children affected. Every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help shape their identity.”- Jorge Bergoglio, denying The Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, and the fact that God, The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, Through The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, while denying sin done in private is sin, and that we are called to desire to be “Temples Of The Holy Ghost”.
From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church:
1849 Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been defined as “an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal law.”121
1850 Sin is an offense against God: “Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight.”122 Sin sets itself against God’s love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become “like gods,”123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus “love of oneself even to contempt of God.”124 In this proud self- exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.125“
Prayers that Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who still retains The Petrine Munus, and has not denied The Unity Of The Holy Ghost and thus affirms The Divinity Of The Most Holy And Undivided Blessed Trinity, and those Bishops in communion with Christ and His Church, will do The Consecration Of Russia to Our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart, exactly as Our Blessed Mother requested.
What is needed is a Miracle, and every Miracle requires an act of Faith.
Your words cause one to reflect. Thank you.
Wouldn’t it be spiritually lifting if all the bishops came forward and stood behind those Ukrainian bishops.
Some might even go and stand in FRONT of the Ukrainian bishops. Just musing…
Luke 1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!”
John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Luke 2:51 And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.
Luke 1:48 For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
Luke 1:42 And she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Luke 1:38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
Acts 1:14 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
To know what God says on a matter is a blessing. If we add or take away from His word, are we profitable servants?
Jesus died to take away our sins, let us honour His word.