On May 13th, 2023, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Pope Francis in the Vatican. (Arriving in Italy, he was greeted by the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella.) The atmosphere of their meeting of 40 minutes was extremely cordial and full of friendship and mutual promises.
Who could imagine such a meeting a year ago? Just after the Pope has unexpectedly and dramatically consecrated Ukraine and Russia, on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the spirit of Our Lady’s message at Fatima (1917) and later (June 1929) in Thy, Spain :
The moment has come on which God asked the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it my this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have to ask reparation : sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.
Pope Francis had asked the bishops of the whole world to unite with him in doing this consecration and having their priests as well as the faithful participate. One year later, we are astonished and deeply moved to witness the unexpected and extremely generous answer from the Immaculate Heart of Mary!
The public solemn consecration a year ago of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was the most peaceful, serious, adequate and profound act of the head of the Catholic Church, joined by his bishops, priests and faithful, and reacting to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
In the XXth century, Russia has been transformed into the “kingdom of evil”, and Ukraine has become quite recently the field of the actions of this evil. The hunger provoked in Ukraine by the criminal authority of the Bolshevik Russian government almost a hundred years ago, in the first half of the XXth century, has been partially cured by American and English protestants, who came there separately, by their proper will, and in the full absence of local authorities, to cure the sick and to help the population to restore some farms. There are now Russian documentaries about their help, — but Vladimir Putin does not care about this.
The very profound human injuries provoked by the war between Russia and Ukraine, being a part of the all permitted by the Heaven wounds of humanity in the XXth century, were professed implicitly beforehand in Fatima, almost at the end of the terrible WWI in 1917, at the beginning of Russian revolution. And the Vierge Mary has given in Fatima a remedy for these wounds: the Consecration to her Immaculate Heart.
This consecration now really immediately helped Ukraine, with all her historically imposed political isolation and now terrible human and economic losses. It also seriously restrained the international status of the authoritarian power and economy of Russia.
Fatima 1917
After the preparatory interventions of the Angel in 1916, followed six Apparitions of the Virgin Mary to three children: Lucia (ten years old), Francisco (nine) and Jacinta (seven) — from 13 May 1917 to 13 October 1917. What we are intending to tell about, happened in the presence of up to three thousand people on the 3rd Apparition of Our Lady (13 July 1917), the crucial and prophetical one.
Our Lady said:
Three months from now I will do so that all may believe. Sacrifice yourself for sinners and say many times: O Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
As Our Lady spoke these last words, she opened her hands once more. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth … and the terrified children saw Hell … Terrified and as if to plead for succor — Lucia continues — we looked up at Our Lady, who said to us so kindly and so sadly:
… To prevent this, I hall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.
If my requests are headed, 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. … In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph (The full text of the 3rd and other Apparitions could be found, for example, in Fatima. Message and Consecration, by Fathers Joaquim Maria Alonso and Abilio Pina Ribeiro, 1984.)
The last, 6th Apparition, has been attended in the stormy weather of 13 October by more than 70 thousand people, who, in spite of the muddy roadways, and the difficulty in crossing mountainous terrain, awaited under strong rain in seers, praying and singing.
At the hour of noon by the sun, the dialogue began between Lucia and Our Lady.
I am the Lady of the Rosary. Continue to pray the Rosary every day, so that God may forgive you for your sins and that you may go to Heaven. If people amend their lives, the war would end this very day …
Looking very sad, Our Lady concluded:
Do not offend the lord our God any more, because He is already so much offended …
“And opening her hands,” Lucia said, “she made them reflect the solar rays, and while she rose, the light that shone from her was continually thrown back on the luminous disc.” Lucia pointed instinctively to the sun and cried out to the people:
Look at the sun !
And it was really fantastic, a never seen before and after the miracle of mowing, swirling and dancing sun!
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Hundred years ago, Our Lady has chosen in Fatima, Portugal, three little kids of ten, nine and seven years as messengers to bring to Catholic humanity the urgent message of extreme importance. All three have accepted their roles and did their best to follow Our Lady. Francisco Marto (born 11 June 1908) and his sister Jacinta (born 5 March 1910) died very young, after accepting long and painful illnesses, heroically born «to console the good God». Jacinta (mort 20 February 1920) and Francisco (mort 4 April 1919) were later beatified on 13 May 2000 by Saint John Paul II and canonized on May 13, 2017, by our Pope Francis.
According to Our Lady’s words, Lucia dos Santos (born 22 Mars 1907) was to live for a double mission: continue to receive further revelations for the Church and the world and to be an apostle of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She died (13 February 2005) as Carmelite Sister in Coimbra, Portugal, being 97 years old.
Fatima: The Last Great Vision of Lucia, 1929 in Tuy, Spain
On 31 October (and later, 8 December) 1942, venerable Pius XII, moved by countless supplications and afflicted by many calamities of WWII, solemnly consecrated the Church and the world the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the consecration of Russia being in the papal heart. This act of the first Papal consecration followed many others on the part of countries, dioceses, and religious and civil groups.
Then, forty years later, on 25 March 1984, Saint John Paul II renewed the Consecration of the World (keeping in his mind Russia) to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, kneeling before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima which is venerated in the Chapel of Apparitions.
Our Pope Francis 2022
Finally, another forty years later, on 25 March 2022, our Pope Francis has renewed this Consecration — explicitly and exactly as it was demanded by Our Lady in the Fatima apparition — for Russia and for its recent substantial part, now independent and suffering, Ukraine. Francis has made this Consecration inviting all bishops and priests of the Church to participate in it. And the Consecration is working!
What happened?
We remind the reader, that it was Francis, who on May 13, 2017, canonized at Portugal’s Fatima shrine the two very young heroes of Fatima, Francisco and Jacinta.
It was also Francis, who accepted and made public the terrible crisis of the Catholic Church, the not-very-hidden sexual abuse by priests. Thus, in particular, our Archdiocese of Strasbourg is today in turmoil: after more than five years of service, the Archevêque accepted just a few days ago the papal decision, confirmed by Pope already since ten months, to leave his post; his depart is provoked by the formality and harshness of his attitude toward the problems of the day in our diocese and the emerging with his depart sexual abuses of some priests.
Francis has travelled recently to Ireland to ask forgiveness for the abuses of power, sexual abuse, exploitation through manual work and abuses perpetrated by men and women of the Church.
Quite recently, at the end of Avril, 2023, Francis had a three-day visit to Hungary. What kept him away before was the tough anti-migrant stance of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in contrast to the 86-year-old pontiff’s compassion for all refugees. What brought him here now, besides his support for Catholics, is the war in Ukraine: Hungary and Ukraine share a 134 km (85-mile) border. “Europe should work for secure and legal corridors to help refugees to safety”, Francis declared at the homily; government ministers listened stony-faced.
To say it, probably too simply: Francis is a Latin American with an open and very honest view of the universal in the modern world human condition, without fear of the global powers. This is why he was able to consecrate Russia and Ukraine according to the word of Our Lady.
Russia 2022-2023
After this Consecration was made by the Pope and many bishops of the Catholic Church, it is impossible to write about Russia in the typical “aggressive” style, corresponding to the character of her actions in Ukraine.
Ukraine is historically a part of Russia, formerly the central part of Russia, the place of Russian birth, starting with the Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovitch Monomaque (1053-1125). Since then, Ukraine has become during 750 yeast an important European province of Russia.
All this has changed dramatically and tragically first during the world catastrophe of WWI … Now, as a result of the Russian aggression, any friendly links between Ukraine and Russia are officially lost, forgotten and condemned, first from the Russian side, now from both sides.
The war was motivated and planned by V. Putin. “Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” he said many years ago.
Since time immemorial, the people living in the southwest of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians. … Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or, to be more precise, by Bolshevik Communist Russia.
Putin and the heads of the local governments of domains captured by Russia on the border.
Putin’s Nazi rhetoric concerning Ukraine reveals his terrifying war aims in Ukraine. Russia’s president says he wants the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine. That actually means regime change.
Russian preparation for the assault on Ukraine was perfect: deep penetration of Russian gas and petrol in Europe, with Germany, for example, depending 40% on Russian gas; good international position; careful, hidden preparation of an army at the border of Ukraine, which was made obviously known by the secret services of the American government, but without the great public concern.
Before the invasion, Russian or Russian-supported forces controlled Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk. Two weeks into the war (5 Mar 2022), Russian forces were just a handful of miles from the capital, Kyiv. In November, Ukrainian forces regained the capital of the illegally annexed Kherson region. While much of the region’s land remains in Russian hands, this was the only regional capital that Russia had seized. Russian army controls 17% of Ukraine’s territory. International observers estimate that 97% of all Russian army are in Ukraine.
Today Russia is in a much more difficult situation than at the beginning of the war. Europe is free from Russian gas and petrol; Russia is capable to export their important source of revenue, petrol, but for much less money. More important, Europe and USA were not bought by Russia’s claim about «neo-nazi» aspects of Ukraine’s life: Ukraine’s neighbors Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and other countries of Europe, who have had a terrible experience with Nazi Germany, have become sincere friends with Ukraine and generously share with it the warfare; so are England, France, Germany and the USA.
Then the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague issued a warrant for President Putin’s arrest for war crimes in Ukraine. As long as he stays put in Russia, he faces no risk of being arrested. Mr. Putin could be detained if he leaves the country. But given the fact that his freedom of movement is already severely limited by international sanctions against him, he is unlikely to show up in a country that would want to put him on trial.
Personal — Ukraine Now
My first article in Catholic Stand (March 18, 2022), “Ukraine, Fatima, and Russia”, about the beginning of Russian aggression was written in a hurry, short before the Papal consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in a great worry for the people of Ukraine and for the country where my parents lived, my father and two uncles fought and died in the WWII, and where I was born just before WWII. Writing it, I had no foundations for purely human hope: Ukraine looked at the moment absolutely helplessly; we tried with my wife to help refugees reachable by international phone.
Now the country has a face: President Volodymyr Zelensky and his ministers. They have international recognition and help. Still, do not forget how many, mostly women and often with kids, have escaped to different European countries (about eight million), strayed in Ukraine after losing their homes (about nine million), and how many have died, and will still die in the war. Remember too Russian systematic shelling of Ukrainian cities with super-speedy rockets named “кинжал” (winger), with rockets and with drones bought from Iran, etc. All Ukrainian economy is destroyed (around 20% is still working).
The country is living and fighting thanks to real international solidarity. Everything is from abroad, arms, good arms, very good arms, and money. American President, catholic Joe Biden, has given Ukraine $46,6 billons during the year January 2022 – January 2023; during the same time, the UK has given $5,1 bn, the EU has given $3,3 bn, and Poland, Germany, Canada, etc., have given together $12,5 billion.
And Ukraine has a strong voice and future as a candidate to be a member of NATO.
Let us pray, in the fulfillment of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, that these promises will be sufficient for the peaceful resolution of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia!
