JMJ
Feast of St. Peter of Alcantara
… She upholds the Truth: The Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church of Christ and everyone must be subject to the sovereign dominion of Christ the King only through conversion to it and submission to the supreme and full primacy of jurisdiction of the Chair of St. Peter.
1. The Consecration of Russia and the Crucial Year of 1929
In the Message of July 13, 1917, the Blessed Mother had promised to Sr.Lucia that “I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart and the Communion of Reparation on the first Saturdays.” And true to her word, our Blessed Mother appeared again to Sr. Lucia dos Santos on June 13, 1929 (Sr. Lucia was still a Dorothean nun during that time, she would not become a Discalced Nun of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mt. Carmel until 1948) where she was praying in the convent chapel during the Holy Hour of Adoration and Reparation.
We will let Sr. Lucia recount the apparition – an apparition that the Church, including Pope John Paul II, has pronounced as worthy of belief – unprecedented even among the annals of recognized heavenly apparitions to the saints of the Holy Church:
“I had requested and obtained permission from my superiors and confessor to make the Holy Hour from 11:00 pm until midnight from Thursday to Friday. Being alone one night, I knelt down before the Communion rail in the middle of the chapel to say the prayers of the Angel, lying prostrate, Feeling tired, I got up and knelt, and continued to say them with my arms in the form of a cross.
The only light came from the sanctuary lamp. Suddenly a supernatural light illumined the whole chapel and on the altar appeared a cross of light which reached to the ceiling. In a brighter part could be seen, on the upper part of the Cross, the face of a Man and His body on the waist. On His breast was an equally luminous dove, and nailed on the Cross, the body of another Man.
A little below the waist, suspended in mid-air, was to be seen a Chalice and a large Host onto Which fell some drops of Blood from the face of the Crucified and from a wound in His breast. These drops ran down over the Host and fell into the Chalice. Under the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady (Our Lady of Fatima with Her Immaculate Heart in her hand)… Under the left arm (of the Cross), some big letters, as it were of crystal-clear water running down over the altar, formed these words: ‘Grace and Mercy’.
I understood that it was the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity that was shown to me…”
From the above details, God Himself signifies the great importance of what Our Lady was about to tell Sr. Lucia:
“The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.” [emphases added]
Sr. Lucy, who had been in the presence not merely of the Mother of God, but the Most Holy Trinity, immediately conveyed the divine request to her confessor, Fr. Gonçalves, as evidenced in her published correspondence with him (in Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinit é [a Fatima expert], The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II: The Secret and the Church, 462-465. Sister Lucia, Memorias e Cartas da Irma Lucia, 1973, 463-465).
2. What, precisely, this Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Mother would entail for that country?
Father Joaquin Alonso, a Claretian priest, appointed official Fatima archivist by Bishop John Venancio of Fatima in 1966 to establish a complete critical history of the revelations states: “… We should affirm that Lucia always thought that the ‘conversion’ of Russia is not to be limited to the return of the Russian people to the Orthodox Christian religions, rejecting the Marxist atheism of the Soviets, but rather, it refers purely, plainly and simply to the total, integral conversion of Russia to the one true Church of Christ, the Catholic Church.” ( La Verdad sobre el Secreto de Fatima, Fatima sin mitos, “… conversion total e integral de un retorno a la unica y verdadera Iglesia, la catolica-romana .”). This testimony is not the private theological musing of Fr. Alonso. The conversion referred to is unequivocally understood in its singular orthodox Catholic sense as is consistently taught by the Chair of Peter (cf. Satis Cognitum and Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae of Pope Leo XIII, Mortalium Animos of Pope Pius XI, and the Dec. 20, 1949 Instruction of the Holy Office on Ecumenism issued by Pope Pius XII). Clearly, Our Blessed Mother came to Fatima, Portugal to uphold the Catholic dogma that only the Roman Catholic Church is the one true Church of Christ – to be attacked, 45 years later, when the other Apocalyptic portent, Satan, symbolized by the great red dragon (Apoc 12.3) which appeared in November 1917, would have finally “entered the temple of God” (Pope Paul VI, June 29, 1972 speech to the Lombard Seminary in Rome) through the “churchmen”-dummies of the Synagogue of Satan (Apoc 2.9) overturning the Second Vatican Council and imposing the doctrine of “Ecumenism” of no return!
3. a. Sr. Lucia’s consistent testimony: “Consecration of THAT country”
However, the divine appeal for the Consecration of Russia was delayed. Sr. Lucia, C.D., wrote in August 1931 that Our Lord appeared with this message: “Make it known to My ministers given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My command, like him they will follow him into misfortune [Our Lord alludes to the mysterious failure of the kings of France to honor Our Lord's request in 1689 for the Consecration of France to His Sacred Heart so that the ruinous consequences of the REVOLUTION, orchestrated by Freemasonry - the "philosophical-religious" front of attack by the Synagogue against the Catholic Church; Communism, the former's militant front - befell the country].” In October 3 and December 8, 1942, Pope Pius XII, acting alone, consecrated the world, but not Russia, to the Immaculate Heart. In the Spring of 1943, Our Lord appeared again to Sr. Lucia and told her that world peace would not result from this consecration, although the war would be shortened.
Professor Thomas Walsh, a prominent historian, educator and author who wrote the classic biography of the great reformer of the Carmelite Order, St. Teresa of Jesus, interviewed Sr. Lucia on July 15, 1946, which is recounted on his work, Our Lady of Fatima, and asked her questions about the correct procedure for the Collegial Consecration: “Finally we came to the important subject of the second July secret, of which so many different and conflicting versions have been published. Lucia 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. But she said more than once, and with deliberate emphasis: ‘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.’” (p. 221) [emphases supplied].
In a little-known revelation of our Blessed Mother to Sr. Lucia, C.D. in the early 1950s, which appeared in Il Pellegrinaggio Pella Meraviglie, published under the auspices of the Italian episcopate, Our Lady said: “Make it known to the Holy Father that I am always AWAITING [emphasis added] the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without the Consecration, Russia will not be able to convert, nor will the world have peace.” July 7, 1952, Pope Pius XII consecrated Russia specifically, but he was not joined by all the Catholic bishops of the world because he did not ask them to participate.
Thirty years later, in 1982, Sr. Lucia’s testimony remains consistent. On May 12, 1982, the day before Pope John Paul II’s consecration, L’Osservatore Romano published an interview of Sr. Lucia by Fr. Umberto Ma. Pascuale, SDB: “Sister, I should like to ask you a question…. Has Our Lady ever spoken to you about the Consecration of the world to her Immaculate Heart?” to which Sr. Lucia replied: ” No, Fr. Umberto! Never! At the Cova da Iria in 1917 Our Lady had promised: I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia… In 1929, at Tuy, as She promised, Our Lady came back to tell me that the moment had come to ask the Holy Father for the Consecration of that country.”
On March 19, 1983, at the request of the Holy Father, Sr. Lucia met with the Papal Nuncio, Abp. Portalupi, Dr. Lacerda, and Fr. Messias Coelho. Sr. Lucia, C.D., confirmed: “In the act of offering of May 13, 1982, Russia did not appear as being the object of the consecration. And each bishop did not organize in his own diocese a public and solemn ceremony of reparation and Consecration of Russia . Pope John Paul II simply renewed the consecration of the world executed by Pius XII on October 31, 1942. From this consecration we can expect some benefits, but not the conversion of Russia.” (in Frère François de Marie des Agnes [a principal Fatima scholar], Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, p. 165).
On March 25, 1984, Pope John Paul II, in his last offering, consecrated again “the world”, not Russia. And as with the 1982 Consecration, “each bishop did not organize in his own diocese a public and solemn ceremony of reparation and consecration of Russia”. Concerning this ceremony Frère François writes: “In the months which followed the act of offering of March 25, 1984, which was only a renewal of the act of 1982, the principal scholars of Fatima agreed in saying that the consecration of Russia had not yet been done as Heaven wished it.” ( Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, p. 172)
In a September 1985 interview in Sol de Fatima, Sr. Lucia was asked if the Pope fulfilled the request of the Blessed Mother when he consecrated the world in 1984, the Discalced Carmelite Nun replied: “There was no participation of all the bishops, and there was no mention of Russia.” She was then asked, “So the consecration was not done as requested by Our Lady?” to which she replied: “No. Many bishops attached no importance to this act” [emphasis added].
b. Testimony of one of the Synagogue’s dummy-'priests'
Even Fr. Rene Laurentin, an associate of the openly Modernist (and therefore apostate) priest-theologians, admitted in 1987 that “Sr. Lucia remains unsatisfied… Lucia seems to think that the Consecration has ‘not been made’ as Our Lady wanted it.” (in Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, p. 189)
4. The Last Papal “Consecration”
Finally, Pope John Paul II himself sealed the consistent testimony of Sr. Lucia that the request of the Blessed Mother for the Consecration of Russia to Her Immaculate Heart has not been granted when he made a departure from his own prepared text of consecration during the 1984 ceremony. After performing the consecration word proper, the late Pontiff added this spontaneous prayer quoted in L’Osservatore Romano of March 26, 1984: “Enlighten especially the peoples of which You Yourself are AWAITING our consecration and confiding.” (“Illumina specialmente I populi di cui tu ASPETTI la nostra consacrazione e il nostro affidamento.” ). This flatly belies that Vatican anonymous order (actually issued by then Secretary of State Cardinal Sodano) in 1988 “obliging everyone to say and think: ‘The Consecration is done. The Pope having done all that he can, Heaven has deigned to agree to this gesture.’” (Fr. Caillon, a devotee who reversed his contrary testimony in “obedience” to this “anonymous” Vatican order, in Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, 189-190)
5. Vatican’s “Consecration” Version vis-a-vis St. Thomas Aquinas: “Ens et verum convertunter” (Truth is Convertible to Reality)
a. Russia after the last Papal 'Consecration'
The state of affairs in Russia after the 1984 Consecration would give the Consecration its “decisive character“ (Sr. Lucia, C.D. in Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph, 167-168): conversion. However, in April 1993, nine years after the 1984 Consecration, Boris Yeltsin had allowed homosexuality to be de-criminalized. Homosexuality is now legal in Russia. Dmitry Chepchugov, head of the Russian Interior Ministry’s department for high technology crimes told reporters in Moscow that “unfortunately, Russia has turned into a world trash bin of child pornography.” (“Activist Says Child Porn Prosecutions Will be Difficult in Indonesia, Russia”, Associated Press, Aug. 9, 2001) In February 2002, the Vatican announced that its “apostolic administrations” in Russia would be designated as dioceses “making up a new ecclesiastical province of Moscow.” Following the Pope’s action, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow cancelled Cardinal Kasper’s visit to Moscow saying that “we have nothing to say to each other.” The Orthodox charged that “it betokens a Vatican strategy to ‘proselytize’ or seek converts, in Russia.” ( National Catholic Reporter, 22 February 2002). Zenit News of December 22, 2000 quoted The Economist noting that “Russia is suffering a crisis of faith… 94% of Russians aged 18-29 do not go to church.” In 2001, Fr. Stanislaw Opiela, the Secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Russia, was denied an entry visa three times without explanation. April 2002, that same fate befell Bishop Jerzy Masur, assigned by the Vatican to administer to the vast region of Siberia. He was expelled from Russia, his entry visa confiscated without explanation and he was to learn that he had been added to a secret list of those who are considered “undesirables” and will no longer be allowed to enter Russian territory. Abp. Kondrusiewicz issued a formal protest in behalf of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Russia, entitled “Religious Liberty in Russia Is In Serious Danger”: “… With grave worry, we express our decisive protest in respect to violation of the constitutional rights of Catholics.” [Russia's 1997 law on "freedom of conscience" continues to grant special legal status to the Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism, while forbidding Catholic "proselytism" and requiring registration of Catholic churches with local bureaucrats].
b. The Miracles in Portugal after Consecration (from "Heaven's Peace Plan in Microcosm" in Fr. P. Kramer, ed., The Devil's Final Battle, Good Counsel Publications, 2002, pp. 23-24)
This Russian state of affairs was a far cry from the case of Portugal which has proved to be heaven’s “demonstration project” of the efficacy of the Consecration the Blessed Mother has long been requesting and “AWAITING“. In 1931, two years after the Blessed Mother had requested for the Consecration of Russia, the bishops of Portugal, in a solemn public ceremony, consecrated their country to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Mother to preserve it from the Communist contagion that was sweeping through Europe, and especially Spain. As a result of this consecration, Portugal experienced a three-fold miracle. First of all, the country experienced a great Catholic Renaissance, a magnificent rebirth of Catholic life. There had been a drastic upsurge in priestly and religious vocations. There was an unprecedented vast renewal of Catholic life including the development of a Catholic press, Catholic radio, pilgrimages, spiritual retreats, and a robust movement of Catholic Action that was integrated into the framework of diocesan and parish life. There was also a miracle of political and social reform, in accordance with the traditional Catholic social principles. The Masonic Regime collapsed and a Catholic leader, Antonio Salazar, ascended to power. He inaugurated a Catholic counter-revolutionary program through which he strove to create, as much as possible, a Catholic social order wherein the laws of government and social institutions harmonize with the law of Christ, His Gospel and His Church. President Salazar did not simply talk a good line; for one, he enacted legislation to protect the family, including laws that frowned upon divorce. In addition to these religious and political changes, there was the two-fold miracle of peace. Portugal was preserved from the Communist plague and especially from the Spanish Civil War which was raging next door. The country was also spared from the devastations of World War II.
Regarding the Spanish Civil War, the good bishops had vowed in 1936 that if Our Blessed Mother protected Portugal, they would express their gratitude by renewing the National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. True to their word, on May 13, 1938, the Portuguese bishops renewed the Consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Heart in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s protection. Cardinal Cerejeira acknowledged publicly: “… If we review the two years which have gone since our vow, one cannot fail to recognize that the invisible hand of God has protected Portugal, sparing it the scourge of war and the leprosy of atheistic communism.” Even Pope Pius XII expressed astonishment that Portugal emerged unscathed from this scourge. In an address to the Portuguese people, the Pope spoke of “the Red Peril, so menacing and so close to you, and yet avoided in such an unexpected way.”
Portugal passed the first danger safe and sound, but there was a second staring them in the face. World War II was about to break out. On February 6, 1939, seven months before the declaration of war, Sr. Lucia wrote to her bishop, Msgr. Da Silva: “… In this horrible war, Portugal would be spared because of the national consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary made by the bishops.” (in The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II, p.428). And Portugal was indeed spared the horrors of the War. In a letter to Pope Pius XII on December 2, 1940, Sr. Lucia wrote: “Most Holy Father, Our Lord promised a special protection to our country in this war, due to the consecration of the nation, by the Portuguese prelates, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; as proof of the graces that would have been granted to other nations, had they also consecrated themselves to Her.” (in ibid.) And Cardinal Cerejeira, in his homily of May 13, 1942 said it very well: “What has taken place in Portugal proclaims the miracle. And it foreshadows what the Immaculate Heart of Mary has prepared for the world.”
13 October 2010
Anniversary of the Last Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima
