American Archdiocese Consecrated To Our Lady of Fatima…
Portland, Ore., Jul 2, 2014 / 02:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Faithful from in and around Portland, Ore. filled St. Mary’s Cathedral to
overflowing on June 28 for Archbishop Alexander Sample’s Mass consecrating the archdiocese to Our Lady of Fatima. The Mass and consecration, celebrated on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, were offered particularly for the strengthening of marriage and family life. “Marriage and family life are in a real crisis. We make this consecration to her to watch over our families and marriages. Families need Our Lady’s love and protection,” the Archbishop said during the homily, according to the Catholic Sentinel. Todd Cooper, Special Assistant to Archbishop Sample, told CNA June 30 that Pope Francis’ consecration of his papacy to Our Lady of Fatima, as well as his consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, spurred Archbishop Sample to do the same for Portland. “That kind of planted a seed for him,” Cooper said, “and he has a strong Marian devotion.” Read more
Comment
Is this something Catholics should ask the Scottish Bishops to do – consecrate each diocese to Our Lady of Fatima? I’m already on record with my impatience that everything and everywhere seems to be consecrated but the one place Our Lady specifically asked to be consecrate – Russia – by the Pope and all the bishops of the world in union with him. However, things are worsening steadily. Should we be asking our bishops to follow the example of the above American Archbishop? Would they follow his example? Is it worth a try?
Comments (48)
I’d say that you would be wasting your breath but I suppose you could at least claim that you had tried.
Crofterlady,
Er… when I said “we” I really meant YOU… Or in Scots-a-leese… YOUSE…
They’d never pay any attention to a request from me. You kidding?
Actually “youse” is widely used in Dublin, I’m told and as Glasgow is largely populated by the ubiquitous Irish, I suspect that’s where it came from. “Ye” on the other hand is widely used in rural Ireland.
I love to lecture a teacher, especially an ENGLISH one!
Crofterlady,
But I’m a SCOTTISH one 😀
Understood!
I agree. I don’t think any Scots bishop would love Our Lady enough to consecrate their diocese to her.
Well, we can’t – obviously – be sure of that but the signs are not good, I grant you.
I’ve read about that Fatima group that’s working for all of these Consecrations to the Immaculate Heart. I think it’s an excellent work.
Maybe we should pray for our Bishops to have an increase of love for the Immaculate Heart. We could have masses offered for this, include this intention in our morning offerings, offer rosaries or the stations of the cross or other prayers for this intention.
I didn’t know there was a group working for diocesan consecrations. I wonder if that is the Britain/America etc Needs Fatima groups – because they think the Russian consecration has been done (and we’re now enjoying that promised period of peace 😀 )
A group working flat out for the Consecration of Russia would be more like it. I mean apart from Fr Gruner’s apostolate, because at present he is the voice crying in the wilderness.
Editor
I don’t remember the group’s name. I read that their efforts were instrumental in getting the Bishops in the Philipines to consecrate their country and also the mayor of Miami, Florida to consecrate Miami and there were other places, too.
Anyway I thought it was interesting that they helped to bring these consecrations about. I was thinking at the time that God can use anyone as instruments but that the graces would come from every rosary and every prayer for Our Lady’s intentions.
3LittleShepherds,
I suspect it may be one of these “X Needs Fatima” groups – anyway, as you say, we keep praying for Our Lady’s intentions.
Editor
I get regular mail from a Britain Needs Fatima group.
Are they genuine?
Frankier,
The Britain/America Needs Fatima groups are a distraction. They believe the consecration has been done and thus they are a distraction because, failing to give the whole truth they are causing confusion. They spend their time advertising various blasphemies – plays and films that denigrate Our Lord and Our Lady etc – because, having taken an anti-Fatima stance by accepting the Cardinal Bertone line that Fatima is in the past, they are flailing around trying to justify their existence. I thought I had unsubscribed from them ages ago but still get their emails, which I seldom read, mostly junk right away.
My advice, for what it is worth, is to ignore them – certainly as far as Fatima is concerned. The only place that I know of where the full Fatima message is to be found is on Fr Gruner’s site at http://www.fatima.org The rest are not worth the cyberspace they are wasting!
They are part of the Tradition, Family and Property group. Christopher Ferrara, who is affiliated to Fr Gruner’s apostolate, wrote a damning article about one of them, Antonio Borelli. See here:- http://www.fatima.org/news/newsviews/ferraraexpose.pdf
The group I was talking about is called Mission For the Love of God Worldwide. I don’t know who they are but wheneverthere’s news about a Consecration to the Immaculate Heart their name pops up. I looked on their website and I still don’t know anything.
Westminster Fly,
I agree that the TFP organisation is no friend of Fatima, sorry to say. Chris Ferrara’s article is up to his usual high standard and makes everything crystal clear. Thanks for that link.
I have taken much of this morning to read in full, the ‘Friendly Reflections’ document (more like the length of a small novel) and I agree the evidence is damning that there is surely some kind of cover up at play here.
I am well behind the pack when it comes to Fatima. Like most Catholics (I assume) I know of Our Lady of Fatima but had really no idea that such controversy, intrigue and alleged machinations surrounded the particulars, and still continue to do so.
I reckon the screams of Scottish Bishops would be heard in Rome if it were suggested they to consecrate their diocese to Our Lady of Fatima. So no, I doubt that they would.
Theresa Rose,
You are probably right, sadly. I’m told they’re already heard screaming in Rome when they read our newsletter 😯
Editor,
“If they’re already heard screaming in Rome when they read our newsletter” – then it is probably due to them getting a dose of reality as to the crisis in the Catholic Church.
I agree with your comment at the outset of this thread, of being impatient with everything and everywhere being consecrated, except for the one thing Our Lady requested – RUSSIA.
With the loss of faith of many in the Catholic Church, and what is happening in the world at large, there is nothing to do BUT Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
I caught a short statement in the latest edition of the Fatima Crusader which I think is very apt.
“The Consecration of Russia is in your power, Holy Father! Only your obedience to the command of Heaven can stop this disaster”.
But then you probably need to read this edition to see why.
http://www.fatima.org/crusader/cr109/cr109.pdf
Theresa Rose,
Thank you very much for posting that link. I stopped short at the prayer given by Fr Gruner at the beginning: “By Thy pure and Immaculate Conception, O Mary, obtain for me the conversion of Russia, Spain, Portugal, Europe and the whole world.” …(Prayer dictated by Jesus to Sister Lucy of Fatima).
It’s very interesting that Portugal is included – seems to confirm the thesis of our recent thread on the opening words of the Third Secret – that the words “The faith will always be preserved in Portugal etc” continues with an “IF”…
I’ve never heard of that prayer before. Fr Gruner says he prays it several times every day, adding Canada and the US, so maybe we should add Scotland.
I skimmed quite a bit of the article and will read it more carefully tomorrow but it looks very serious indeed and fits in with snippets we’re getting in TV and radio news broadcasts.
It’s way too hard to fathom how any pontiff could ignore this request from Heaven, given the state of the world, and – in terms of the present pope, could actually waste time planting daft olive trees (nothing personal, olive trees, you understand) just because the world’s media will be impressed with his (fruitless) involvement in middle east peace attempts (think today’s news from that region alone) and inter-faith nonsense.
And who can forget Pope Benedict’s shameless admission of doubt and faithlessness when he told an interviewer (book length interview) that he just couldn’t believe that saying a short prayer of consecration of Russia could bring world peace. To God, he was insisting, all things are NOT possible.
No wonder the world is hurtling from one disaster to another, with confusion into chaos at every turn. With popes like these, who needs the Orange Lodge?
We’ve always prayed that prayer, too, in our family or sometimes we pray “Sweet Heart of Mary be Spain’s salvation” and we name different countries, cities, or places that we can think of.
3LittleShepherds,
I thought I’d read every available book on Fatima and attended several Fatima conferences, yet had never read or heard of that prayer until Theresa-Rose posted that link. Is there a source for it apart from the Fr Gruner article (not that I’m doubting, not at all. Just interested.)
Editor
The prayer is in a letter Sr. Lucia wrote on August 29, 1931. You can find it on page 543 volume II of “The Whole Truth About Fatima” by Frere Michel. He also gives a good explanation for other Consecrations being made on pages 496-497 of the same volume.
Yes Theresa, they would oppose it as Cultism.
Backed up by the Mercy of Kasper… One may and, indeed , must certainly criticize many of the attempts to exaggerate Mary’s status, which are to be assessed by the criterion of the Bible’s testimony to Jesus Christ, who is the foundation —laid once and for all— and the permanent center of Christian faith.
Cardinal Walter Kasper ( ). Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life (Kindle Locations 3733-3734). . Kindle Edition.
Read it and weep. The Pope’s theologian.
Summa,
You are a real treasure – a joiner-upper-of-dots… A rare species. To link Cardinal Kasper’s disgraceful insults to Our Lady with the question of whether our bishops would be likely to consecrate each Scottish diocese to her Immaculate Heart, is not normal. You’re abnormal. In the nicest possible way of course! The Catholic Truth team have to keep hammering away at folk to “join up the dots” and so to find someone, albeit someone who is upside down (Australia!) is very heartening for us.
Will those who are NOT (yet) joiners-upper-of-dots, pay attention. 😉
I think someone would have to tell the Bishops who Our Lady of Fatima is.
Vianney said I think someone would have to tell the Bishops who Our Lady of Fatima is.
That’s wry! 😉
That’s interesting ‘cos Vianney’s usually Awry! Big time!
Did I askew? 🙂
Cheeky rascal !
I know. Apologies. Antipodean audaciousness 😉
Don’t give it a second thought. I’m an auntie myself, so I understand… 😀
A priest I knew well who is now a bishop very strongly promoted personal consecration to Our Lady according to the Montfortian method. I assumed that when he became bishop he would naturally want to consecrate his diocese to the Immaculate Heart, so I personally delivered him a letter imploring him to do this, presenting evidence of the illustrious epoch following Portuguese episcopal consecration. Presently, my endeavour has borne no fruit.
Miles,
I suspect this is the new Scots bishop who said he planned to bring Pope Francis’s vision of the Church to his diocese. I’m surprised that you wasted the bus/train fare. Top marks for effort though.
Editor,
Back in the late 1980s (A Marian Year if I remember correctly) I wrote to Card. O’Brien concerning Our Lady of Fatima. I also enclosed a copy of the Fatima Crusader for his perusal, hoping (in vain) for a positive reply. A polite letter of refusal followed. Later, I was given to understand by “someone in the know” that my letter was filed under his section entitled “N” for “NUTS”. Still, regards asking our Bishops, it’s certainly worth trying!
Our Lady’s words to Lucia that there was a distinct possiblity that “various nations will be annihilated” ….. hmmm, wonder which ones she was referring to?
Voynod
Hi there, Voynod, long time no hear from thee!
That’s all very interesting indeed about Cardinal O’Brien although I sincerely hope that your hint about a certain nation which might be among those to be annihilated is well wide of the mark… at least while I’m still in it 😀
…Pope Benedict’s shameless admission .. that he just couldn’t believe that saying a short prayer of consecration of Russia could bring world peace.
I have often wondered about that too. Would the simple act of consecrating Russia or anywhere else to Our Lady bring about great results or is it assumed that there will be subsequent ongoing prayer and devotion before the promised results are seen?>
Eileenanne,
Either we take Our Lady at her word or we doubt her word. I, for one, have always believed that with God all things are possible.
Our Lady said in words of one syllable, that if the Pope, in union with all the bishops of the world, consecrated Russia to her Immaculate Heart, two things would happen.
1) Russia would be converted (to Catholicism)
2) A period of world peace would follow.
The Fatima scholars argue that “a period of peace” does not necessarily mean peace forever, unless, of course, the world is to end soon thereafter, but a period of peace which will be extended to the point where it is unmistakeably Heaven’s response to the obedience of the pontiff in consecrating Russia as prescribed.
There was no mention of any on-going prayers and devotion as a condition of the conversion of Russia and period of peace. In my opinion, for what it is worth, Pope Benedict’s doubt reflects the faithless spirit of our times, and a disappointing failure to comprehend that God’s ways are not our ways. He does things, Scripture makes clear, in a way that “confounds the wise”. A Professor of just about anything might make a list of conditions which must be met before world peace would come about. That’s not God’s way. He asks, through His mother, for one simple act of obedience from His Vicar on earth. That’s all it will take to bring about the conversion of Russia and world peace. How sad that the popes have failed to comply.
To my simple mind, it seems worth a try since nothing else is working. At that level if not from higher motivation, it is puzzling in the extreme that the twentieth/first century popes have not done what Our Lady asked. Puzzling and amazing.
I’m sure you’re right, but it just seems TOO easy.
Non-Catholics occasionally accuse us of being too focused on ritual, as if we believe that if we do such and such God jumps through hoops. It can make prayer seem almost like a spell. It does seem hard to understand why God would withhold Russia’s conversion and world peace – even if only temporary – for which many many people have prayed for years and then comply in response to one short ceremony carried out by the Pope and Bishops. But I agree that at the very least it’s worth a try.
Eileenanne,
When we think about the fact that God’s entire plan of salvation rested on Our Lady’s “fiat” – her humble acceptance of God’s will by saying “yes”, it’s not so difficult to understand that God merely requires a simple act of obedience from His Vicar on earth, to effect the conversion of the first nation ever to publicly deny God.
When the salvation of souls is at stake, God does not, it seems, make His people jump through hoops, merely asks for the exercise of faith and humble obedience.
It’s truly incredible to think that top officials in the Vatican will, without doubt, have been worrying the recent popes that if he does this, it will be bad for political and diplomatic relations with Russia. I’ve heard that argument put so often and it leaves me gobsmacked, that anyone would implicitly accuse Our Lady of being politically and diplomatically inept. And by extension, since Our Lady did not decide to leave Heaven and speak to Sr Lucia because she was at a loose end one day, but acted as God’s messenger, they are also accusing God Himself of the same ineptitude. Truly unbelievable.
Eileenanne,
I think the fact that to do the Consecration and expect miraculous results would be “easy” only magnifies the fact that this is a diabolical disorientation. It shows how little these popes and bishops trust, and dare I say “believe in”, Our Lady and Our Lord.
I think that it really comes down to a matter of Faith.
There is undoubtedly disbelief in the Fatima visitations in the Vatican.
Therefore I would think that the resultant lack of faith in the pronouncements of Sister Lucia only underpin the reluctance of any move to Consecrate Russia that might look foolish or ridiculous in this liberal and religiously sanitised world.
I also suspect that it might upset a few Protestants within the Vatican like Cardinal Kasper who would see any faith in the efficacy of Our Lady as a setback in ecumenical relations.
“There is undoubtedly disbelief in the Fatima visitations in the Vatican.”
I couldn’t agree more. That sums up the whole situation. That’s why there’s been no consecration of Russia and won’t be until it’s almost too late. Our Lady did say it would be done but it will be late and since the Church could hardly be in worse condition, it is already almost too late.
So if Our Lady had asked for the consecration of Russia to be spread over two months of constant prayer would he, Pope Benedict, have believed it was possible then?
I wonder what he thinks of the creation of the universe in 7 days.
“I wonder what he thinks of the creation of the universe in 7 days.”
The Church has always said that those 7 days may not be literally 7 days as we know them but ages in time, although it might mean literally 7 days. I doubt if Pope Benedict will go for the literal interpretation though – that also goes against his purely rational mind.
Here’s another slap in the fact to Our Lady of Fatima – Vatican supporting a “pause for peace” during a daft World Cup football match – are they just stupid, or what?
I mean, all this crackpot ‘peace symbolism’ when the Pope and Bishops could deliver the real thing? Stupid? Or what?
That is just too ridiculous for words – a “pause for peace” during a football match. I wonder if the Catholic authorities in the Vatican have any fear of God at all, and I include the pope. How they can ignore the consecration of Russia and do these symbolic things instead really does beggar belief. Don’t they trust Our Lady?