The Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

On 13 June 1929, Sister Lucia had a sublime vision of the Holy Trinity and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in which the consecration of Russia was requested.

"I had asked," Sister Lucia wrote, "and obtained permission from my superiors and my confessor to make the Holy Hour on Thursdays from eleven o'clock until midnight. Being alone one night, I knelt between the balustrades in the middle of the chapel and prostrated myself to say the prayers of the angel. I grew tired, so I rose to a kneeling position and continued saying the prayers with my arms outstretched in the form of a cross.

"The only light was that of the sanctuary lamp. Suddenly the whole chapel was illuminated with a supernatural light, and a cross of light that reached to the ceiling appeared over the altar. A man [the Eternal Father] could be seen from the waist up in the midst of a brighter light on the upper part of the cross. He had a dove of light [the Holy Ghost] at his chest. The body of another man [Our Lord Jesus Christ] was nailed to the cross. Suspended in the air just below His waist was a chalice and a large host on which fell some drops of blood from the face and the wound in the side of the Crucified. These drops ran down the host into the chalice. Our Lady was under the right arm of the cross [it was Our Lady of Fatima, who held her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without a sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames]. Under the left arm, large letters that seemed to be made of crystal-clear water running onto the altar formed these words: 'Grace and Mercy'.

"I understood I was being shown the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, and I received lights about this mystery that I am not permitted to reveal.

"Then Our Lady said to me: 'The moment has arrived wherein God is asking the Holy Father to consecrate Russia to my Immaculate Heart in union with all the bishops of the world. He promises to save it by this means. The souls whom the justice of God condemns for sins committed against me are so many that I have come to ask for reparation. Do penance for this intention and pray.'” ⁷⁷

Through her confessors and the Bishop of Leiria, the seer sent this request of Our Lady to Pope Pius XI that same year. The pontiff promised to take it into consideration. ⁷⁸

In a letter to her confessor, Father José Bemardo Gonçalves, S.J., dated 29 May 1930, Sister Lucia explained that Our Lord made her feel His divine presence in the depth of her heart and urged her to ask the Holy Father for the approval of the reparative devotion of the first Saturdays. These are the words of the seer: "If I am not mistaken, the good Lord promises to put an end to the persecution in Russia if the Holy Father deigns to make a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and orders all the bishops of the Catholic world to do the same. The Holy Father must also promise to approve and recommend the reparative devotion already indicated in return for the ceasing of this persecution".⁷⁹

Later, through another interior communication, Our Lord complained to Sister Lucia that the consecration of Russia had not been made. "They did not want to heed My request. They will repent like the king of France and will make it, but it will be too late. ⁸⁰ Russia will already have spread its errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The Holy Father will have much to suffer." ⁸¹

On 21 January 1935, in another letter to Father José Bernardo Gonçalves, S.J., Sister Lucia stated that "Our Lord was quite displeased because His request had not been carried out".⁸²

Writing to the same priest on 18 May 1936, Sister Lucia explained: "About the other question – as to whether or not it would be appropriate to insist in order to obtain the consecration of Russia – my reply is almost the same as my previous ones: I regret it has not been done yet, but the same God who requested it is the one who has so permitted this…. Whether it is appropriate to insist or not, I do not know. It seems to me that if the Holy Father did it right now, God would accept it and would fulfil His promise, and, in so doing, the Holy Father would no doubt gladden Our Lord and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

“I have spoken to Our Lord inwardly about the subject, and not too long ago I asked Him why He would not convert Russia without the Holy Father making that consecration.

“ ‘Because I want My whole Church to acknowledge that consecration as a triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, so as to subsequently extend the devotion to it and place it alongside the devotion to My Sacred Heart.'

" 'But, my God, the Holy Father will not believe me unless You move him with a special inspiration.'

"'The Holy Father! Pray very much for the Holy Father! He will do it, but it will be late. Nevertheless, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will save Russia, which has been entrusted to it.'"⁸³

Again writing to Father Gonçalves, on 24 April 1940, she says: "If He wanted to, He could hasten that cause. But He will let it go slowly to punish the world. His justice, provoked by our sins, demands it thus. Sometimes He becomes annoyed not only at grave sins, but also at our laxity and negligence in heeding His requests…. Sins are many, but, above all, the negligence of souls whom He expected to serve Him with ardour is much greater today. The number of souls who are with Him is very small." ⁸⁴

Sister Lucia returned to the same thoughts in a letter – also to Father Gonçalves – on 18 August 1940, writing:

"I suppose it pleases Our Lord that there is someone who is concerned about His vicar on earth fulfilling His wishes. But the Holy Father will not comply with them now. He doubts they are real, and explicably so. Our good Lord could show clearly through some prodigy that it is He who is asking, but He takes this opportunity to punish the world with His justice for so many crimes and to prepare it for a more complete return to Him. ⁸⁵ The proof that He gives us is the special protection the Immaculate Heart of Mary affords Portugal in view of the consecration made to it. ⁸⁶

"The people you tell me about have good reason to be frightened. All that would also have happened to us had our prelates not heeded the requests of our good Lord nor so earnestly implored His mercy and the protection of the Immaculate Heart of our good heavenly Mother. But in our country there are still many crimes and sins, and, since now is the hour of God's justice upon the world, it is necessary to continue praying. For this reason, I deem it good to instil in people not only a great confidence in the mercy of our good Lord and in the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but also the awareness of the necessity of prayer accompanied by sacrifice, especially that which must be made in order to avoid sin." ⁸⁷

In a letter dated 2 December 1940, Sister Lucia addressed herself directly to Pope Pius XII in obedience to her spiritual directors, asking him to bestow his blessing upon the devotion of the first Saturdays and to extend its practice all over the world, adding:

"In 1929, during another apparition, Our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, promising its conversion and to prevent the propagation of its errors by this means…. In several interior communications. Our Lord has not ceased to insist on this request, recently promising to shorten the days of tribulation with which He has determined to punish the nations for their crimes – through war, famine, and persecutions of Holy Church and Your Holiness – if Your Holiness deigns to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with special mention of Russia, and orders all the bishops of the world to do the same simultaneously in union with Your Holiness." ⁸⁸

On 31 October 1942, in a radio message to Portugal on the occasion of the closing of the jubilee year of the apparitions of Fatima, Pius XII consecrated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In 1943, Sister Lucia had another revelation from Our Lord, which she related to Father Gonçalves in a letter dated 4 May of that same year.

"By order of His Excellency (The Rt. Rev. Manuel Maria Ferreira da Silva, titular Bishop of Gurza), I had to communicate a brief message from Our Lord for the bishops here in Spain to the Archbishop of Valladolid and another for the bishops of Portugal. Let us hope they all hear the voice of the good Lord. He wishes that the bishops of Spain gather in a retreat and draw up a plan of reform for the people, clergy, and religious orders. Because some convents!.,. And many members of others!... Do you understand? He wishes that it be made clear to souls that the true penance He now desires and demands is, before anything else, the sacrifice that each one must endeavour to make in order to fulfil his own religious and temporal duties. Because of the act of consecration made by His Holiness, He promises that the war will end shortly. But since it was incomplete, the conversion of Russia will be postponed. If the bishops of Spain do not heed His wishes, it [Russia] will be once again the scourge with which God will punish them." ⁸⁹

On 7 July 1952, in the Apostolic letter Sacro Vergente Anno, Pius XII consecrated the peoples of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in an apostolic letter.

At the Second Vatican Council, 510 archbishops and bishops from seventy-eight countries signed a petition entreating the vicar of Christ to consecrate the entire world – especially and explicitly Russia and the other nations dominated by communism – to the Immaculate Heart. The petition also requested that he order all the bishops of the Catholic world to join with him in this act on the same day. The document was presented personally to the Holy Father Pope Paul VI by The Most Rev. Geraldo de Proença Sigaud, Archbishop of Diamantina, Brazil, during a private audience on 3 February 1964. ⁹⁰

Pope Paul VI, in closing the third session of Vatican II on 21 November 1964, "confided the human race" to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the same act in which, to a standing ovation of the Council Fathers, he proclaimed Our Lady "Mater Ecclesiae." ⁹¹

John Paul II made two consecrations of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, one in Fatima on 13 May 1982, and the other in Rome on 25 March 1984. Both consecrations were preceded by the Pontiff's invitation to the bishops to unite with him in these acts. There is, however, no positive information to evaluate to what extent the bishops of the whole world carried out the consecration in union with the Pope, either in 1982 or in 1984. Moreover, Russia was not mentioned by name in either of these consecrations.

Consequently, Sister Lucia always insisted until about mid-1989 that neither of these consecrations had been "valid" (taking the word in the sense of heeding the requirements Our Lady indicated to the seer). Since then, however, Sister Lucia has been recognising the validity of the consecration that John Paul II made on 25 March 1984.

Fatima experts are now divided over Sister Lucia's position, some adhering to the new one and others preferring to hold to her former pronouncements.

The matter is too complex for us to resolve here. For the moment it is enough to note that on giving her view about a possible relation between the consecration and the spectacular events that occurred in Eastern Europe, mainly in the second semester of 1989, with the apparent collapse of communism – a relation that seems to be at the root of the change in the seer's position – Sister Lucia makes it clear that she is expressing a personal opinion and not transmitting a supernatural revelation.

We are preparing a study of this interesting question to be brought out in due time.

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To complete this analysis, it is useful to clarify two questions that frequently arise in the present circumstances:

         First Question: If the Secret “was only this”, why did the Holy See take so long to reveal it?

         To one who refers to the third part of the Secret as being “only this”, I answer that he certainly was unable to penetrate the mysterious and profound meaning of the Secret’s metaphors. This is not surprising because Cardinal Ratzinger himself felt this difficulty when he emphasised, at the beginning of his “Theological Commentary”, that the vision was “a scene described in a language which is symbolic and not easy to decipher”.

         Further conjecture lies within the realm of hypothesis and is beyond the subject matter of this work.

Second Question: What does the third part of the Secret contain that would become “more clear” after 1960 as Sister Lucia declared when setting a date after which the text could be published?

We believe the key to deciphering the third part of the Secret is mankind’s response to Our Lady’s appeal at Fatima for penance and amendment of life. The fact that mankind has gone further and further away from the ways of virtue since the 1960s is notorious. We need only mention the cultural revolution that spread quickly throughout the world since the Sorbonne student revolt in 1968. Here, once again, we come across the errors of Russia that undeniably permeated this revolutionary movement. And, within the Church, we have the post-Conciliar crisis that brought in its wake a crisis of the Faith. By its very nature, a crisis of Faith implies a rejection of God, of Revelation and of the Magisterium of the Church. This can be of varying degrees, but has become widespread throughout the Christian world. (See footnote 23 Chap. 2, Concerning crisis in the Church)

Thus, both the temporal and spiritual order are in disarray. This can only be put right by means of an extraordinary intervention of Providence accompanied by a special regime of graces for humanity as described by the third part of the Secret. This whole disarray only became more apparent to everyone in the mid-60s, which confirms Sister Lucia’s prophetic intuition.