Pope to consecrate Russia to Virgin Mary inspired by century-old Fatima prophecy

Pope Francis introduced Tuesday that he’ll consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Coronary heart of Mary, fulfilling a 1917 imaginative and prescient purportedly revealed to Portuguese youngsters that such a blessing would usher in a interval of world peace.

The consecration will happen on March 25 and might be executed at Saint Peter’s Basilica. The blessing will coincide with the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, a Catholic feast day.

The pontiff wrote on Twitter, “On Friday 25 March, through the Celebration of Penance at 17.00 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, I’ll consecrate #Russia and #Ukraine to the Immaculate Coronary heart of Mary. #PrayTogether #Peace.”

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Pope Francis made the connection to the Fatima prophecy specific, with high-ranking officers within the Vatican stating that an an identical blessing might be given from the well-known Portuguese city concurrently the pope’s consecration.

Director of the Holy See Press Workplace Matteo Bruni mentioned in an announcement to Vatican Information, “The identical act, on the identical day, might be carried out in Fatima by Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner.”

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On July 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary is claimed to have appeared to a gaggle of shepherds in Fatima, Portugal, to whom she gave three secrets and techniques to be revealed to the world.

The trio, a gaggle of kid shepherds, claimed to have been visited six occasions by the Virgin Mary. The kids described three visions they are saying got to them – considered one of hell, one of many finish to World Conflict I, and a ultimate imaginative and prescient of an unnamed pope being killed by gunfire, in addition to angels sprinkling blood of Christian martyrs on the deceased.

Nevertheless, a clause of the second imaginative and prescient has remained beneath scrutiny – a request to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Coronary heart of Mary. The apparition allegedly instructed the kids {that a} consecration of Russia would cease the nation’s “errors all through the world, selling wars and persecution of the Church.” 

If the consecration didn’t occur, the apparition claimed “the nice might be martyred, the Holy Father could have a lot to undergo, varied nations might be destroyed.”

Catholics have debated for many years each the validity of the Our Woman of Fatima apparitions and whether or not this particular consecration was carried out.

Pope Pius XII consecrated the whole world in 1942, and adopted it with the same blessing in 1952, this time for “all of the peoples of Russia.” In 1964, then-pope Paul VI renewed the Russian consecration through the Second Vatican Council. Pope John Paul II additionally composed a prayer of “entrustment” for Russia in 1981.

Rivers of blood and tears are flowing in Ukraine,” Pope Francis has mentioned of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “It’s not merely a army operation, however a warfare which sows loss of life, destruction and distress. The variety of victims is growing, as are the individuals fleeing, particularly moms and kids.”‘

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities final month, Pope Francis made the extraordinary papal gesture of going to the Russian embassy in Rome to specific his concern in regards to the warfare.

The pope’s exhortation echoed that of greater than 280 Russian Orthodox clergy, who signed an open letter urging for an finish to the “fratricidal warfare” in Ukraine, as of Sunday.

“We mourn the ordeal to which our brothers and sisters in Ukraine had been undeservedly subjected,” the letter learn, in accordance with a translation in The Christian Submit.

Fox Information’s Jon Brown contributed to this report.