Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Friday 25 March, during the Celebration of Penance that he will preside over at 5 pm in St Peter’s Basilica.
The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni said in a statement, “The same act, on the same day, will be performed in Fatima by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner,” who is being sent there by the Pope.
The day of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord was chosen for the consecration.
In the apparition of July 13, 1917, in Fatima, Our Lady had asked for the consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart, stating that if this request were not granted, Russia would spread “its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecution of the Church.” “The good”, she added, “will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed.” After the Fatima apparitions there were various acts of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary: Pius XII, on October 31, 1942, consecrated the whole world, and on July 7, 1952, he consecrated the peoples of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Apostolic Letter Sacro vergente anno.
On 21 November 1964, St Paul VI renewed the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart in the presence of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. St Pope John Paul II composed a prayer, for what he called, an ‘Act of Entrustment’ to be celebrated in the Basilica of St Mary Major on June 7, 1981, the Solemnity of Pentecost.
Saint John Paul II on May 13, 1982, during his apostolic journey to Portugal, consecrated the world and Russia, then still under the Marxist dictatorship of the Soviet Union, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The prayer was recited by the Holy Father exactly one year after the attack suffered by Ali Agcà. According to some interpretations, the act of entrustment did not respect the conditions required by the Virgin when she appeared to the three little shepherds.
In June 2000, the Holy See revealed the third part of the secret of Fatima. At the time, the then Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, pointed out that Sister Lucia, in a letter of 1989, had personally confirmed that this solemn and universal act of consecration corresponded to what Our Lady wanted: “Yes, it was done”, wrote the visionary, “just as Our Lady had asked, on March 25, 1984”.
