Pope Francis’ Consecration of Russia Is an Ecclesial Earthquake

National Catholic Register, 24 March 2022

Courtesy of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill’s support for Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, the religious landscape of the 21st century has shifted significantly.

Why now? 

Why 105 years after the Fatima apparitions, and 93 years after Sister Lucia had the message from Our Lady confirmed in 1929, is the Holy Father explicitly consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with the bishops of the world?

The war is the reason, and not just the fighting in Ukraine. 

Kyiv is still standing but Kirill of Moscow has already fallen. 

The Holy See released Wednesday the text of the Act of Consecration, to be made by Pope Francis in Rome on the Feast of the Annunciation and by his envoy, Cardinal Konrad Krajewksi, in Fatima at the same time. It will truly be universal — translations were issued in Tigrinya, the major language of Eritrea, and Malayalam, the language of the ancient St. Thomas Christians of Kerala.

The relevant part reads: “To your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine.”

Since 1929, the Roman Pontiffs have repeatedly made consecrations to the Immaculate Heart, and the 1984 consecration by St. John Paul II was judged by Sister Lucia to have fulfilled the request made by Our Lady of Fatima.

However, this time is different. Russia is explicitly mentioned, and all the bishops have been asked, as well as parish priests, to unite themselves to the Holy Father’s act.

The request to Sister Lucia, the sole surviving Fatima visionary by 1929, specified the explicit consecration of Russia, so “that Russia would convert” and peace would be achieved.

Yet even in 1984, St. John Paul II did not, in advance or in his official text, mention Russia. It was said that he did so when making the actual consecration.

The Vatican was reluctant to be so explicit for two reasons.

One was to avoid inflaming any superstitious sentiments which seemed to regard the consecration as akin to a shamanic incantation, or as a pious but perverse practice, like burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down in order to sell a property.

The other reason was Russian Orthodox sensitivities. 

Russia is the de facto home of global Orthodoxy. The Catholic Church recognizes the Orthodox as valid sister Churches with an authentic episcopate and sacraments, not to mention an immense spiritual, theological and liturgical patrimony which dates to the first Christian centuries.

If the eastern “lung” of the Church is the Greek Orthodox tradition, its modern tongue is often Russian.

Therefore an act by the pope, one of whose titles is Patriarch of the West (thought Benedict XVI declined to use it), to consecrate Russia so “that she might convert,” could easily be badly received. Convert from what? To Catholicism?

While the “conversion of Russia” was widely thought in the West to refer to communism — the peaceful dismantling of which followed in short order after the 1984 consecration — it would not be unreasonable for Russian Orthodoxy to have concerns.

After all, what if an Orthodox patriarch were, in response to a Marian apparition, to consecrate Italy to Mary’s heart, that it might convert? What might Catholics and the Bishop of Rome think?

Given Russian Orthodox sensitivities, Rome proceeded with subtlety and discretion.

And now? Friday’s consecration is not only momentous in itself as a spiritual act, not only momentous in its most immediate goal, which is peace, but momentous in what it follows, namely the fall of Kirill.

The Patriarch of Moscow, a man of great culture who has been deeply compromised by both Soviet and Russian state power, has, in a few short weeks, ceased to be a religious authority worthy of respect. He is now widely viewed to be personally corrupted by power, more Putin’s propagandist than a pastor whose flock — by his own self-understanding — includes Ukrainians.

In less than the space of a month Pope Francis received the request for an explicit consecration, acceded to it, announced it and invited the entire Church to participate in it. Such an ecclesial earthquake is of historic proportions. 

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