BOGOTA, Colombia (LifeSiteNews) — The Latin American Bishops have announced they will join the Holy Father in consecrating Russia and the Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25 in accord with Our Lady’s request at Fatima.
The Episcopal Conference of Latin America (CELAM) has asked “the 22 Episcopal Conferences of the Continent, all ecclesial organizations, and the faithful of good will” to participate in the act of consecration and “join the intentions of the Holy Father.”
The conference received the announcement of the consecration by Pope Francis “with great joy and hope,” saying, “We reiterate our affection and filial communion with the Bishop of Rome, raising our pleas to God our Father so that through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, he will grant us the gift of peace.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews on Tuesday, following an appeal of the Ukrainian Roman Catholic Bishops, the Vatican announced that it will carry out the consecration of Russia and Ukraine on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation. In the Vatican press release, Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, said:
On Friday 25 March, during the Celebration of Penance at which he will preside at 17.00 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The same act, on the same day, will be carried out in Fatima by His Eminence Cardinal Krajewski, Apostolic Almoner, as envoy of the Holy Father.
As reported yesterday on LifeSiteNews, the surviving Fatima seer, Sister Lucia dos Santos, said she received a request from heaven in 1929 that the Pope, in union with the bishops of the world, consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The Vatican’s announcement is one step toward the fulfillment of the heavenly request. However, worried Catholics are insisting that all the bishops of the world must join the Pope in making the consecration at the same time (5 p.m. Rome time) on March 25. As bishops’ conferences announce their intention to do just this, LifeSiteNews has asked readers to ask their own bishops to join in this consecration of Russia and Ukraine for the peace of the world.
According to Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima, who died in 2004, Our Lady told her and her two cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”