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Has Russia Been Consecrated to Mary?

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Russia today is vengefully returning to international politics after temporarily receding after the collapse of the Soviet empire.  Moscow is lashing out with tenacious diplomatic and military support for the brutal regime in Syria that has butchered more than one hundred thousand Syrians to crush a civil war.  Moscow too is militarily dismembering neighboring Ukraine by occupying Crimea and sponsoring an insurgency in the eastern part of the besieged country that had longed to integrate into Western civilization.  Moscow’s aggression has cowed the United States and European states, while states closer to Russia’s borders fear that they will soon be politically, militarily, and economically coerced by President Vladimir Putin.

These rapidly unfolding and tragic events should jar the memories of faithful Catholics of the promise our Blessed Mother made at her apparitions in Fatima, Portugal at the turn of the last century.  According to William Thomas Walsh’s beautiful book Our Lady of Fatima, the Blessed Mother told three children at Fatima on 13 July 1917:   “I come to ask the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the first Saturdays.  If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace.  If not she will scatter her errors through the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church.”  The series of Fatima apparitions concluded with the famous “dancing of the sun” on 13 October 1917, which was witnessed by tens of thousands of pilgrims.

Two of Fatima’s seers, Jacinta and Francisco, died in childhood, but Lucia lived a long life in anonymous seclusion.  Lucia fled the public attention and controversy that surrounded the Fatima apparitions, the likes of which have been all too typical of authentic Marian apparitions throughout the two thousand years of Church history, for life as a cloistered nun.

The Fatima apparitions have been marked by a nearly one hundred year controversy over whether or not the Church has consecrated Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart as Our Lady requested.  Sister Lucia, in a 1946 interview with author Walsh, “made it plain that Our Lady did not ask for the consecration of the world to her Immaculate Heart.  What she demanded specifically was the consecration of Russia.  She did not comment, of course, on the fact that Pope Pius XII had consecrated the world, not Russia, to the Immaculate Heart in 1942.”

Sister Lucia’s understanding of Fatima was enriched by a deep prayer life filled with private revelations.  Our Lady appeared to Lucia often until she died on 13 February 2005 at the age of ninety-seven, report Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone with Giuseppe De Carli in their 2008 book The Last Secret of Fatima.  As Lucia elaborated to Walsh, apparently drawing on a private revelation she had in 1927, “What Our Lady wants is that the Pope and all the bishops in the world shall consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart on one special day.  If this is done, she will convert Russia and there will be peace.  If it is not done, the errors of Russia will spread through every country in the world.”

Popes over the subsequent decades have consecrated the world writ large but not specifically Russia and not in unity with all the Church’s bishops of the world.  Saint John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square on 25 March 1984, for example, consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  More recently, Pope Francis in October 2013 consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in front of some 150,000 pilgrims in Rome, according to the National Catholic Register.

Nevertheless, many observers argue that these consecrations of the world fulfilled the request of Our Lady of Fatima.  Most notably one the Church’s highest officials, Cardinal Bertone, who served as both secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later as the Vatican’s secretary of state, in The Last Secret of Fatima shared details of his 17 November 2001 interview of Sister Lucia in her convent.  By Bertone’s account, Sister Lucia said, “the consecration Our Lady wished for was performed in 1984, and that is was accepted by Heaven.”

The Catholic Church no doubt has been reluctant to specifically consecrate Russia to avoid offending the Russian Orthodox Church.  As Bertone and De Carli explain, “The consecration of Russia obviously posed a very tricky religio-political problem for Pope John Paul II.  The pope, not wishing to offend the sensibilities of our ‘special brethren,’ the Orthodox, remained cautious.  An explicit consecration would have been received by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexi II, as a declaration of war.”

But would a Catholic consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary justifiably be seen by the Russian Orthodox Church as “an act of war”?  If the Russian Orthodox Church consecrated the Roman Catholic Church to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, would Rome be offended?  Or would Rome be justifiably grateful and extend its brotherly thanks to Moscow recognizing that in this gravely troubled world both east and west desperately need any and all help from our Blessed Mother.  Moreover, we Catholics call ourselves members of the “universal” church.  Why then should the universal church make a hard stop at Russia’s political borders?  Do we fear a Russian Orthodox politically motivated backlash?  Are we not told repeatedly to “fear not” in the Holy Bible?  Catholics therefore should have no fear and ignore political borders, especially in this time of new evangelization, to do service for our Blessed Mother and the world.

The Russian Orthodox Church, moreover, often acts more as a political instrument for President Putin than as an ethical check on his power.  It appears not to be rendering onto the Russian Caesar what is his, but instead seems to be doing Putin’s bidding as an extension of Russia state power.  Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill once famously likened Putin’s reign to “a miracle of God” and the Orthodox Church has financially benefited from close ties to political-economic oligarchy that controls Russia to build or restore about 25,000 churches in the past 25 years, according to Reuters reporter Gabriela Baczynska.

Despite his intentions, Cardinal Bertone’s book has not settled the stirring and persistent controversy as to whether or not Our Lady of Fatima’s consecration request has been fulfilled.  Indeed, the long running controversy in the ears of Church laymen often has an annoying “he said, she said” ring to it with those saying the promise has been fulfilled trading barbs against those who say it has not.

Instead of chasing down that rabbit hole, perhaps a more constructive and informative contribution to the debate would take a step back and ask central and critically important questions.  Does Russia today look and act like it has been converted as Our Lady of Fatima promised would be the case if it were consecrated to her?  Or one might put the same question into more theological terms.  Do we see the spiritual “fruits” of Russia’s conversion?

The answer to both of these questions is a resounding no.  After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union without the resort to war, hopes were raised that the various consecrations of the world to Mary’s Immaculate Heart were starting to bear spiritual “fruits.”  But these hopes have been dashed as Russia rested, recouped, and returned with a new version of its militant nationalism to wreak havoc at home and abroad.

Russia’s alleged return to Christianity after atheistic communist days, like so much of what is Russia, is a Potemkin village.  Expert Pew polling shows that there has been an upswing in affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church as the share of Russian adults identifying themselves as Orthodox increased from 31 percent to 72 percent between 1991 and 2008.  Despite the increase in religious identification, no more than about one in ten Russians say they attend religious services at least once per month.  One out of ten Russians going to church once a month is hardly the massive surge in religious conversion as one might expect from Our Lady’s Fatima promise.

Russia’s demographic crisis that includes the breakdown of nuclear families and widespread abortion also shows it has not been converted. As political economist Nicholas Eberstadt assesses in the Foreign Affairs magazine, “The country’s population is shrinking, its morality levels are nothing short of catastrophic, and its human resources appear to be dangerously eroding.  Indeed, the troubles caused by Russia’s population trends—in health, education, family formation, and other spheres—represent a previously unprecedented phenomenon for an urbanized, literate society not at war.”  Jonathan V. Last in his book What to Expect When No One’s Expecting paints a grim picture of Russia’s demographic disaster with Russia having the world’s highest divorce rate and abortion so rampant that 13 abortions are performed in Russia today for every 10 live births.

Russia’s massive use of propaganda for political power shows that it has not been converted.  Peter Pomerantsev writes in The Atlantic, “On Russian ‘news’ broadcasts, the borders between fact and fiction have become utterly blurred.  Russian current-affairs programs feature apparent actors posing as refugees from eastern Ukraine, crying for the cameras about invented threats from imagined fascists gangs.” Pomerantsev perceptively concludes that “The point of this new propaganda is not to persuade anyone, but to keep the viewer hooked and distracted—to disrupt Western narratives rather than to provide a counternarrative.”  The internationally respected Freedom House rates Russia’s press as “not free” and judges that Putin’s government penalizes journalists for not conforming to its increasingly strict definition of acceptable views and is expanding its control over broadcast and print media.

Russia’s military buildup despite its decaying society shows that it has not been converted.  Professor Nikolas Gvosdev judges in the pages of The National Interestmagazine that a distinguishing characteristic of Putin has been his commitment to revitalizing Russia’s military.  If Putin’s conventional weapons buildup was not bad enough, he also is modernizing Russian nuclear weapons while American nuclear forces languish.  As reported in Foreign Policy magazine, Russia has tested a ground-launched cruise missile in violation of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987.

Russia’s use of military power to disembowel Ukraine shows that it has not been converted.  Astute Russia watcher and journalist Anne Applebaum ably catalogues for the Washington Post Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine following its take over of Crimea earlier this year. Russia sent mercenaries and security service operatives to hide Moscow’s hand to attack police stations and government offices to delegitimize Ukraine’s government.  Then the Russians dispatched heavier weapons such as machine guns, artillery, and eventually tanks, armed personnel carriers, and anti-aircraft weapons the likes of which undoubtedly shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and murdered 298 civilians, mostly Europeans.  Despite Russian inflicted death and destruction, Europeans and Americans are too fearful of Russia to call the Ukraine crisis what it is:  a real and new war in Europe.

A review of Russia’s internal politics, social and spiritual decay, and ruthless foreign and defense policies strikingly shows that the Church has not fulfilled its half of the promise made by Our Lady of Fatima.  The Blessed Mother never has, and never will, mislead her son’s Church.  If she promises, she delivers true to her word.  If we members of the Church had fulfilled our duties and responsibilities, Russia today would be a far different country and the security of many nations would not be imperiled by Russian aggression as it is today.  Pope Francis acts boldly as he has done by convening the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family.  We might hope and pray that our holy father—who displays an intimate bond with Our Lady—would some day flex his inspiring courage and faith to convene a synod on the Fatima apparitions.  With the perilous state of the world and the Church, we cannot afford to lose any more years handwringing and failing to courageously seize Our Lady of Fatima’s promise of peace.

 

This article originally appeared on Catholic Exchange. Reprinted with permission.

34 thoughts on “Has Russia Been Consecrated to Mary?”

  1. Woa! I have read but the first paragraph of this polemic, and you are so far off base that it is embarrassing. Are you that swamped by your media that you cannot understand what is truly happening in the world? Read Culture Wars which is truly fine Catholic discussion. Yours is embarrassing in the extreme. Is your policy America first the Catholic teaching second? I refer you to Pope Leo XIII to curb your outrageous and scandalous ramblings? I am British and reject our governments actions, but so not assume that you are in anyway superior. It beggars belief that I have read this on a traditional catholic website.

    Reply
    • I always enjoy when people criticize a post and yet offer nothing as a counter argument. Yet this comment is so disjointed perhaps it is just a spam comment.

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      • The counter argument is to read Culture Wars by E Michael Jones for a truly Catholic understanding. Try reading his monumental work “The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit” and his just printed “Barren Metal”. It was your wonderful neocon harpie in the State Department, Victoria Newland who spilt the beans when she said that the US had spent $5bn in destabilising Ukraine that led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government in a coup d’etat and Newland put her man, Yats. in as PM. Your government is furious that Crimea turned to Russia in a democratic poll, where more than 90% of the people voted to enter the clutches of the friendly bear. The mighty USA has bombed Serbia, invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, and bombed Libya serving their Rothschild masters. They wanted to bomb Syria, but Putin said no way and placed his and Chinese warships off the coast to threaten Obama. Obama blinked and has been furious ever since. So now uncle Sam, supported by his European lapdogs, is out to destroy Mother Russia, by sanctions and dropping the price of oil. This is independent reporting – once again in Culture Wars and not Fox News – where the true perfidy of your satanic government and elite are seeking total domination. Putin is so aware of what the West is trying to do to Mother Russia. Sister Lucy of Fatima did say, and it can be easily verified, that Russia would be the instrument of America’s downfall. I am afraid that this article falls back on racial stereotypes and not on a truthful reading of the history. I don’t know too much about Putin, but I do know that he will be at Midnight Mass this year, as he has in previous years (and that means three hours) will any other leader?

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        • So now uncle Sam, supported by his European lapdogs, is out to destroy Mother Russia, by sanctions and dropping the price of oil..

          Yes, Barons meet monthly in Vienna to set the price of oil yet Limbaugh, Woods, Fox News, The Action Institute etc would have us believe that supply and demand sets the price and that is just one tiny example of how the neo-cons successfully lie to us but where is the common sense of Catholics who do not appear to even question the sudden drop in oil prices?

          What, has there been some enormous oil deposit discovery that has dramatically increased the oil supply (Thus lowering prices) or is there some other rational explanation of the sudden drop in prices such as market (There is no such thing as a free market) manipulation by the super wealthy so as to try and beggar their enemy?

          M.J. knows this is ducking down a rabbit hole but maybe it will cause some to start asking questions; in any event, no more on this topic from me.

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          • Dear Steve. The price of oil has plummeted since June and the biggest countries most affected are Russia and Iran and those are counties comprising the new axis of evil according to the Neo-Cons.

            Color me cynical, but M.J. doubts that is coincidental and it is to be doubted that shale production has so rapidly increased in the past year to account for the 40% drop in one half of a year after a long time of price-fixed stability.

            America is forever identifying some putative evil monster as the next Hitler who threatens our peace and security but if one were simply to look at where US military installations are on this planet (such maps are easy to find online) one would realise how absurd such claims are.

            Remember when Saddam Hussein was a putative threat to world peace and stability (love those words) when he was, militarily speaking, just a grubby guy riding around on goat with a grenade in his underoos,

          • I think it is a combination of Shale and the heretofore mentioned maneuverings, in fact, one led to the other as one would expect of competition. When the pipeline is FINALLY built, this will become even more obvious, but President OBstruction will delay that all that he can.

          • Dear Ryan. MY was at a gas station this weekend and paid $2.18 per gallon.

            Can the rapid reduction this past sox months be attributed to supply – or is it a demand that Putin be removed from power?

  2. Amen. Culture Wars is indispensable in general but in particular on this question. Messrs Jones and Sungenis had it out over this topic and Sungenis left the periodical after labeling Jones an anti-Semite in a curious manner that recalled Buckley casting out Sobran but this time it was in the reverse in that the employee fired the boss despite Jones having given Sungenis a ton of space.

    In any event, what country is better vis a vis sodomites and abortions and which country spends money and effort to rebuild Churches – Russia.

    And which country, in proportion, has its nose stuck in the business of others all over the world and which country has been destabilizing the M.E. – America.

    And which country came to the aid of the Christians in the M.E. when America did jack? Russia.

    The list could go on and on and MJ too is unhappy with the neo-con complaints.

    Russia ought be our ally given its Christian hx and its Christian people and its abundant natural resources but America has long targeted it for just those reasons.

    As to the question of the consecration, there is no excuse for it not having been done

    Reply
    • MJY, I agree with you but although Sungenis and Jones had a quite public falling out, it was over the Consecration of Russia. Sungenis would never call Jones an anti-Semite as he knows that he is not. I greatly admire both these writers. They are true titans in this diabolical disorientation that beholds the world. I wish that we had people like them on this side of the pond.

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      • Dear Paul. That particular issue is no longer in MJY’s possession but Sungenis implicitly did call him an anti semite and it is well known that Sungenis has scrubbed his sites of all negative references to Messias-Deniers and so who knows what is going on with he whom others had entire blogs devoted to confronting his putative anti semitism.

        In any event. we do agree on the Consecration and who cares if the so-called orthodox would object to the Vicar of Christ obediently comlying with a request made by Mary?

        But, the triumph of naturalism over supernaturalism is almost complete in the praxis of our Hierarchy.

        Political considerations trump Mary.

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        • You are correct of course. If time I will revisit the arguments in Culture Wars. I did hear a talk that Robert gave in which he crystallised the argument between him and Jones as one where Jones believes that the Church is always right, but Sungenis says that the Church has, as in Old Testament times apostatized, and in failing to carry out the request of the Blessed Virgin (Jones effectively believes that JP2 did it) She is due for Her chastisement – hopefully the undoing of this terrible conciliar church – before the BVM’S triumph of her Immaculate Heart. We are living in truly terrible times.

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          • The consecration question is more complicated than it appears. Blessed Virgin of Fatima asked it not once (1917), but twice (second time in 1929), in the matter of fact, and second time she mentioned it (because it was not done yet by then), she then added consecration is to be done by pope with all the bishops.

            Pope Pius XII, on December 8, 1942, in the middle of North African WWII battles, consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And those days were turning point for the allies — first great victory ever won (El Alamein). In 1952 same pope Pius XII did consecrate people of Russia explicitly in his apostolic letter (Sacro Vergente Anno, addressed July 7th 1952). Shortly after Stalin was gone.

            So half the request was done, so to speak. But not him, nor any pope afterwards, did it with all the bishops. That part is still missing.

            In 1960 pope John XXIII was supposed to read the third secret of Fatima openly, but he did not. Pope JPII supposedly revealed the third secret in year 2000, but he did not read it himself — his secretary of state did. It is odd, because the request was that a Pope (of the time) should read it. Same that version of the third secret, by claims of those invested in subject, does not sound right at all, firstly because it is three times longer than the single sheet of paper used for Lucia’s note (as noted by her then-confessor).

            All popes failed to meet the request from 1929. Pope Pius XII, however, did the best job so far.

          • Hello

            If my memory serves me correctly Our Lady said to Lucia and Jacinta that in the future she will come to ask for the consecration. That she did in 1929. Two years later Our Blessed Lord appeared as a little boy who said to Lucia to tell His ministers that they do not fall into the same fate as the King of France who after 100 years had his head chopped off for not obeying heaven and consecrating France to His Sacred Heart. Attempts have been made by various popes but the explicit act of mentioning Russia by name and with all the bishops of the world has not happened; hence their can be no partial acts. We await 2029 which is the hundred years of heaven’s request. But we know from Fatima that the pope will do it but it will be late.
            I thought that JXXIII and JP2 read the 3rd secret, but I stand corrected if they didn’t. I find it pretty amazing that they didn’t, because of the solemn messages it contained.

          • What is meant by *late*, we still do not know exactly, because the matter is confusing (to say the least).

            1. Sister Lucia wrote, that in 1917, during the apparitions, Blessed Virgin mentioned consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, to which she will (formally?) — ask later (!?). That alone is a strange notion, but I’ll come to that later.

            2. In 1929, in Tuy, that happened, a formal request for consecration, and mention of “pope with all bishops” was noted. Also, it was mentioned that consecration will happen, but shall come — “late”.

            3. Sister Lucia’s vision with Christ reminding his ministers of the fate of king of France is from Rianjo, Spain, in 1931.

            4. In 1952, Pope Pius XII indeed consecrated Russia in his apostolic letter (see above), but that was not a consecration with all the bishops, obviously.

            Did Blessed Virgin by “late” meant that
            (a) a Pope *alone* will consecrate Russia and it will be late (happened in 1952, but undoubtedly late), or (b) a Pope *with all the bishops* will consecrate Russia and it will be late (still true, because it never formally happened)?

            This, obviously, is a matter of confusion, because some think consecration is done, and they mention either Pope Pius XII, or Pope JPII. Still some think that it is was not done as requested. Those who think the consecration was not done *as requested* are traditional Catholic groups who indeed have a valid point: where is that period of peace clearly promised? Have we had one? Even after 1952, we had a period of Cold War, not peace, in which world fought many local wars. Or was the Cold War “a period of peace” indeed promised by heaven? Or was the period of peace sometime in 1980s/90s, when, apparently, JPII consecrated Russia? No, that never happened — since 1980, Iraq-Iran war erupted, and many other local wars. Obviously, Pope JPII did no consecration as requested.

            Another point, regarding the fate of king of France: shall we count days from the day consecration was first mentioned (1917), or when it was petitioned (1929), or seriously warned about (1931)?

            We are up and against ourselves. I am of an opinion that, as the Old Testament proves, God does not waste words, time nor requests. If something is mentioned once, it should be recognised as urgency, taken as a commandment right away. So effectively, if consecration was first mentioned in 1917, it should have been done *before the formal request came*, for obviously, formal request came because there was no action on an expressed first notion of it.

            However, because the formal request came finally (and which should not have happened in a courteous court of a good king and queen) an additional burden was put on backs of those who should have had enough senses to act immediately. The second chance, then, becomes more strenuous. But not even that lesson was learnt.

          • I am afraid that in matters in accuracy we have to state that the Blessed Virgin asked for the consecration in 1929, not 1917, maybe Christ will allow a two year extension to 2031, who knows. Her words confirm that she will come to ask for the Consecration. So we should discount 1917. The two years later that Our Blessed Lord arrived confirms the urgency of the request. Could the 2nd World War, the holocaust and the slaughter of Christians in Russia have been averted, had the Pope and the bishops carried out the request as demanded and not to satisfy political concerns of the day (Pius XII, JPII & Francis). The importance about the situation of the King of France is the 100 year time frame, so “late” must refer to that period. 23 years after 1929 would not necessarily be late if following that time frame.

            Objectively no pope has carried out the request as demanded. Fudging around words when they are quite clear wont satisfy God. God understands man’s predicament so I think the counting must be taken from 1929, as there was no formal request from the BVM. I think the terrible history of the world since 1917 stands as a stain on the hierarchy for not doing God’s request.

            We know that Mary will send a good and holy pope from Quito apparitions, (which implies that there will be a run of not so good and holy popes) and maybe he will do the request. By not agreeing to the requests of heaven, the world has descended into the Tribulation that was told about by Our Lord in Matthew’s parousia narratives. We have an apostate hierarchy who are leading millions of souls to perdition. This is the chastisement which has a long way to play out imho.

          • I don’t know if we should be starting counting from any year and add 100 or whatever other number. It does not add up to the meaningful interpretation of anything we know if we do not examine the period between the 1917 and 1929 and try to understand following: what have the people failed to see in 1917?

            How many millions have died from 1917 to 1929 in Russia and in the world? How many is “too little” to be ours or heaven’s concern? 5 million people? 10 million? 15 million?

            Years from 1917 to 1929 was the time of Bolshevik slaughter in Russia. Lenin opened gulags, and purged the entire society. In 1922 Stalin came to power. It was 7 years before the 1929, and shortly after taking his office he was doing same as Lenin. I find it incomprehensible that world “was supposed” to wait 12 years for a “formal request” to consecrate Russia; were they blind to the evil done in Russia in that same time? That each new day is more difficult and bloodier than the previous? No one asked pontiff to consecrate world in 1942, but pope did it _anyway_, he was urged by his conscience, because the Italy was bombarded. So, is the nearness of a danger a stimulus to think “outside the formalities”?

            No, something is terribly wrong with that notion of a “waiting period” and I cannot believe people of that time were so crazy to think Queen of Heaven is entertained visiting and asking “formal requests”. Where was human forethought? Concern? Where were the wise men gone? Did they not see what was going on in Russia?

            All the same, did Christ come twice to bear the cross twice, and twice asked same people to follow him and listen to what he has to say? Likewise, why would his mother do same?

            In that same period Hitler started rising to power too, and we did not need 1933 to see world was preparing for another war. Likewise, even as early as 1890s, many have analysed and concluded world was rushing into a war, which came about in 1914.

            I therefore challenge the entire popular interpretation of the Fatima case, because as it is, it is nonsense.

          • In essence I agree with you. But strictly in truth the Church has to act with the utmost prudence in all matters of private revelation. Our Blessed Mother did say that “I shall” return to ask for the consecration and the five first Saturday devotions. It was only later in 1929 that the form and matter were expounded that the request of heaven became formal and an obligation on the Church. It was urgent because only two years later the baby Jesus appeared to Lucia demanding why it hadn’t been done. I find it interesting that the sign in the heavens, the vision of the Lady clothed with the sun from Revelations is going to be an astronomical event in November of this year. Is heaven gearing up to fight the prince of this world. That the Holy Father left it till 1942 and left out mentioning Russia shows that the Church had allowed herself to be swayed by Her enemies. Ditto. World War 2 could have been avoided and the same for WW3 to come. Remember that God has a mission for Holy Mother Russia once the consecration has been done. The slaughter of Christians between 1917-29 can be seen as sacrifice to accompany Our Blessed Lord on the Cross, similar to what is happening in the Middle East, which will precede the glory of Orthodoxy back in the bosom of the Church. When you look at the prophecies of Russia occupying Rome, could this be to come and save Holy Mother the Church from her enemies? So I err on the side of 1929, as the pivotal date. I don’t know why Our Blessed Mother left it till 1929 to return to ask for the consecration, I am sure there are people out there who could explain, but there is a reason which heaven knows. Something as part of the battle of the End Times which we are in between the Woman and the Dragon.

          • Dear sir,
            Please pardon my ignorance, but what this means: “I find it interesting that the sign in the heavens, the vision of the Lady clothed with the sun from Revelations is going to be an astronomical event in November of this year.”?

            Astronomy is very exacting science, and things in heaven, revolutions of planets, orbits, change of seasons, etc. repeat all the time. Same things happen in the sky every year, so who took on a claim that something extraordinary will happen *this* November in the sky, and on what extraordinary premises?

            There is one solar eclipse approaching on September 1st, and that’s about it:
            http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2016-september-1

          • Thank you for the link. The article is nonsensical though, because EVERY year sun shines in the constellation of Virgo, in the same time of year. Why would 2017 be different from any other year? Lots of hype about totally wrong things to hype about.
            If the author would learn a little bit of astronomy only, or science, but no: posting sensationalist posts and fooling readers into no-issues is much easier.
            That is what faith has become — a tabloid banter..

          • It is the crown of 12 stars around her. Plus bethlehemstar.com based on astronomy. Do read. God does provide astronomical signs for his faithful. Why not when he mentions them for the End Times?

          • Yes, I have heard about that. Thank you for the reference.
            But, I have a question: if the Fatima miracle was not an astronomic event, therefore not something naturally occurring, why do people think that a supernatural birth of Christ was announced by — a natural event?
            It seems to me modern Bible scholars find themselves too anxious to put forward this or that scientific ‘explanation’ only to justify themselves, but not their faith.

          • Fatima was a miracle pure and simple as it didn’t obey any natural laws and OLF said that God would perform such a miracle. Just as God stopping the sun in the book of Joshua in it’s orbit – which means the whole rotation of the heavens. The signs that happened at Christ’s birth and death and with the sign of the Woman Clothed With The Sun, are naturally occurring, but all point to the Creator. He designed it all from the moment of creation. The Star of Bethlehem was a one off event, the Woman sign happened at Guadeloupe, on the very day/moment of Our Lady’s apparition to Juan Diego and appeared on the Tilma. That very constellation will appear again in 2017. Amazing and true. Blessed Be God!

          • Paul, that constellation (Virgo) is always present in the sky. It did not disappear. I am bedazzled with the rumours and all the buzz about it, because there is nothing extraordinary in it, apart from celebration of the 100 years of Fatima apparition. The constellation was in the same spot last year, 50 years ago, and will be in 2020.
            Websites like that one you mentioned are gullible and amass user clicks by spreading illicit rumours. We live in crazy times and irresponsible, half-learned men found ways to make faithful look like sheep. Shame on them.

  3. I admit that I have not studied the issue sufficiently, but I remain deeply skeptical of Putin’s Christianity. The corruption of his government, the thrown elections, the assassination or imprisonment of his political enemies and critics, his increasingly hostile foreign policy and not a few reports that the Russian Orthodox Church is being used as his political tool all give me pause. (Catholic prophecy about Russia’s invasion of Europe is also thought-provoking, if you are disposed to consider such things.)

    As for the supposed moral underpinnings of Russian society? The stats in this article and elsewhere paint a different picture. The abortion rate, the sexual immorality, the playboy lifestyles of the many billionaires and the economy that has risen up around them – what of these? I don’t have a problem with laws against sodomy, but I do have a problem with violent persecution of homosexuals. It’s hardly Christian to beat them into submission.

    At the end of the day, there have been more than a few predictions that Soviet Communism would morph and take on a new form. I don’t know if that’s what has happened, but Putin is certainly old guard.

    Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa’s book, Disinformation is on my short reading list. I expect it will grant some much needed insights into what is happening in Russia today.

    http://www.amazon.com/Disinformation-Strategies-Undermining-Attacking-Promoting/dp/1936488604

    Reply
    • It was a coalition of non-Christian international banksters who raped Russia

      http://paullikoudis.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/the-plunder-of-russia-in-the-1990s/

      http://www.unz.com/comments/isteve/marc-rich/

      but the Neo-Cons parade before us false fears of the Russian Bear to keep our eyes directed away from the ongoing Western economic and political practices.

      Western Capitalism is sate sponsored usury and, having plundered us, the internationalist are scurrying around the globe creating chaos from which they can profit but all the while M.J is supposed to fear Putin?

      He’d make a much better neighbor than any bastid from Harvard or Washington D.C.

      Reply
    • So Steve you swallow hook, line and sinker the western MSM fear-mongering drivel concerning Russia. It is all about demonising Putin, and it is a modus operandi that they have done time and time again. Many see Russia’s invasion of Europe and the Russian flag flying above the Vatican as a means of Europe’s salvation from the evil that Uncle Sam (at the behest of uncle Schlomo) has disseminated around the world. It will also be the time of the arrival of the the great monarch (see Marie-Julie Jahenny, the Breton Stigmatist) who will restore the monarchy to France and much of Europe, and restore the pope to the Holy See. Yes the predictions about the re-morphing of Soviet Communism is happening in USA and Europe. It is Holy Mother Russia which is standing up to the tyranny of ISIS (Israeli Secret Intelligence Service) which was created by Uncle Sam, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and the UK.
      President Putin stands head and shoulders above the disgrace which masquerades for western leadership. The oligarchs that grew out of the 90’s were overwhelmingly Jewish – as they are in the Ukraine. Do you have a problem with the biblical account of Sodom and Gemorrah?

      Reply
    • The counter argument is to read Culture Wars by E Michael Jones for a truly Catholic understanding. Try reading his monumental work “The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit” and his just printed “Barren Metal”. It was your wonderful neocon harpie in the State Department, Victoria Newland who spilt the beans when she said that the US had spent $5bn in destabilising Ukraine that led to the overthrow of the democratically elected government in a coup d’etat and Newland put her man, Yats. in as PM. Your government is furious that Crimea turned to Russia in a democratic poll, where more than 90% of the people voted to enter the clutches of the friendly bear. The mighty USA has bombed Serbia, invaded Afghanistan, Iraq, and bombed Libya serving their Rothschild masters. They wanted to bomb Syria, but Putin said no way and placed his and Chinese warships off the coast to threaten Obama. Obama blinked and has been furious ever since. So now uncle Sam, supported by his European lapdogs, is out to destroy Mother Russia, by sanctions and dropping the price of oil. This is independent reporting – once again in Culture Wars and not Fox News – where the true perfidy of your satanic government and elite are seeking total domination. Putin is so aware of what the West is trying to do to Mother Russia. Sister Lucy of Fatima did say, and it can be easily verified, that Russia would be the instrument of America’s downfall. I am afraid that this article falls back on racial stereotypes and not on a truthful reading of the history. I don’t know too much about Putin, but I do know that he will be at Midnight Mass this year, as he has in previous years (and that means three hours) will any other leader?

      Reply

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