It is 25 years since Pope John Paul II made the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on St. Peter's Square at Vatican, March 25, 1984. He was successful since the consecration was done in communion with bishops of the world.
The Sanctuary of Fatima renewed the Consecration on the day of the 25th anniversary, with the local bishop, D. António Marto presiding.
See: http://forums.catholicconvert.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=105630
The Sanctuary of Fatima renewed the Consecration on the day of the 25th anniversary, with the local bishop, D. António Marto presiding.
See: http://forums.catholicconvert.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=105630
The Act of Consecration of 1984
On the 25th of March, during the extraordinary Holy Year of 1983/84 that he had proclaimed to mark the Redemption, John Paul II solemnly fulfilled Our Lady of Fatima’s request that the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, consecrate Russia to Her Immaculate Heart. The consecration was in the context of a special Jubilee Holy Year Mass for the Christian Family. In preparation for this consecration John Paul II sent a letter to all the bishops of the world, asking them to join him in the collegial consecration of the world as a renewal of the two acts of consecration made by Pope Pius XII;
- one of these being a consecration of the world (1942),
- and one of Russia (1952).
Implicit therefore in the 1984 act of Entrustment to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was the consecration of Russia.
This was a satisfactory fulfillment of what Our Lady of Fatima had asked for when, on the 13th of July 1917, She informed the three children (Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco):
“I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays”.
Thus in June of 1929, four years after She had come to ask for the latter (at Pontevedra in Spain), Our Lady again appeared to Sr. Lucia (at Tuy in Spain), telling her in regard to the former:
“The moment has come when God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, to make the Consecration of Russia to My Heart, promising to save it by this means”.
So as to mark in a special way this singular moment in the history of the modern world, John Paul II had the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima, carved from the holm-oak over which the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the children in 1917, flown from Portugal to Rome. The statue was placed on a flower covered podium, near the altar which had been set up in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass. At the end of Mass, John Paul II knelt before the statue to pronounce, before an immense crowd, his Act of Entrustment.
For a more detailed discussion of this 1984 Act of Consecration, the reader is referred to chapter six of Our Fatima book, The Five First Saturdays.
