Two dozen countries were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and
the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatima,
Portugal on March 25 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cardinal António Marto, the bishop of Leiria-Fatima and the bishops of
Portugal and Spain performed the consecration to the Sacred and Immaculate
Hearts. On the solemn occasion of the Feast of the Annunciation, the bishops
asked for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession for the “direct and indirect
victims” of the pandemic that affects us, for “health professionals, tireless
in their efforts to help the sick…authorities, in their efforts to find
solutions," and for "all of us and our families." The rosary was
also recited in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Polish. Tens of thousands of
faithful watched the ceremony broadcast live on the web page for the Fatima
shrine and throughout Portugal on television, radio, and many Catholic digital
platforms.
The Portuguese initiative was the result of a petition begun on March
19 by a group of laymen who gathered over 5,500 signatures that they presented
to the Portuguese Episcopal Conference. Among the signers were several members
of the Bragança family, including Duke Duarte Pio, the great-grandson of King
Miguel I of Portugal and claimant to the defunct Portuguese throne. The text of
the petition stressed the urgency of the situation, highlighting not only the
evils of the coronavirus but also all the miseries that are already associated
with it, from isolation to unemployment "at levels never seen before."
Initially, only the Portuguese bishops intended to renew the consecration
of their country to the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts. Then the Spanish bishops
asked to take part in this consecration, followed by other bishops’ conferences
the world over. The countries consecrated were Albania, Bolivia, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, East Timor, Guatemala, Hungary,
India, Kenya, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
The Basilica of Fatima was built on the site where, just over a century
ago, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared six times to three Portuguese children, Lúcia
dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto. The Queen of Heaven
told the children to make sacrifices for sinners and pray the Rosary every day for
peace. A few years later both Francisco and Jacinta died to the Spanish flu, a
pandemic that killed over 25 million people. Lúcia later became a nun, and she reminded
the faithful that the Rosary is “something everybody can do.”
May our Lord and Lady bless this public act of adoration and
reparation.
The consecration ceremony can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU0XNlO_1QY
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