Saint Peter's, March 25, 2022
In Fatima on July 13, 1917, Our Lady announced that God was preparing to "punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, hunger and persecution of the Church and of the Holy Father ." To avoid these disasters, Our Lady asked for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, made by the Pope in union with all the bishops of the world, and the propagation of the practice of the devotion of the first Saturdays of the month, consisting in joining her, Confessed and receiving Holy Communion, for five consecutive Saturdays, meditating for fifteen minutes and praying the Holy Rosary. "If My requests are accepted--said Our Lady--Russia will convert and they will have peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be destroyed. Finally, My Immaculate Heart will triumph."
After the apparitions of Fatima in 1917 there have been various acts of consecration and entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but all partial and incomplete, even if not without effect, so much so that, since 1931, the Lord complained to Sister Lucia about the failure to consecrate Russia: “They did not want to listen to my request! Like the King of France, they will regret it, and they will listen, but it will be too late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church: the Holy Father will have to suffer much.”
Pius XII in the Radio Message to Portugal of 31 October 1942, consecrated the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope Pacelli himself, on 7 July 1952, with the apostolic letter Sacro vergente anno consecrated all the peoples of Russia to the Mother of God. Russia was explicitly named, but there was no solemn union with Catholic bishops from all over the world. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council would have been an extraordinary occasion to fulfill the request of Our Lady. In 1965, 510 archbishops and bishops from 78 countries signed a petition asking that the Pope in union with the Council Fathers consecrate the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and especially Russia and other nations dominated by communism. Paul VI, however, did not heed the request.
John Paul II, after being dramatically wounded in the attack of May 13, 1981, attributed miraculous protection to Our Lady of Fatima, and on May 13, 1982 he went as a pilgrim to her sanctuary, where he entrusted and consecrated to Our Lady "those men and nations which are particularly in need of this entrustment and consecration.” A similar consecration was repeated by him on March 25, 1984, in St. Peter's Square, in the presence of the statue of the Virgin which came specially from Portugal. The Pope had written to bishops from all over the world asking them to join him, but not all received the invitation and few actually did it. Even on this occasion Russia was not explicitly mentioned, but there was only a reference "to the peoples of whom you expect our consecration and our entrustment ".
A third act of entrusting the Church and humanity to the Virgin Mary was pronounced on 8 October 2000, in front of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, by John Paul, together with over 1500 bishops representing the world episcopate. Benedict XVI had the Third Secret of Fatima disclosed (the text of which is however judged incomplete by many) and on May 12, 2010, kneeling before the image of Our Lady in the chapel of the Apparitions of Fatima, he raised a prayer of entrustment to her, asking for her liberation "from every danger that hangs over us."
On 13 October 2013, in the sanctuary of Saint Peter's, Pope Francis pronounced words of entrustment to the Madonna. However, he omitted the consecration of Russia, which many awaited.
On May 13, 2017, Pope Francis went to Fatima for the canonization of the two little shepherds Francesco and Jacinta, aged 9 and 11, who, together with their cousin Lucia dos Santos, saw and heard the words of Our Lady in 1917. Regarding their cousin Lucia, who died in 2005, her beatification process is underway. However, even in this case the Pope ignored the requests of the Madonna.
Today the international scenario has dramatically changed and Pope Francis has decided to do what none of his predecessors ever did. In fact, from 1917 to 2022, nine Popes have acknowledged Fatima and all, after Benedict XV, have approved of its devotion. Six of them have visited the Shrine, as Popes or as cardinals. Some of them, such as Pius XII and John Paul II, showed great devotion to the apparitions of 1917. However, none of them has so far fulfilled the insistent requests of Our Lady. The act that Pope Francis will perform on March 25 seems to correspond to these requests and is accompanied by an adhesion of bishops, priests and laity, which has never happened before today. The importance of the event is not of a geopolitical nature, but of a metaphysical and supernatural nature, because it appears as one of those moments in which the mystery of history seems to tear itself apart and the light of God illuminates the events of the world, beyond the intentions of the protagonists. This happens as Russia's bombs from Kiev threaten to spread over the whole world.