Various Popes made consecrations to Mary from 1942 through 1984.
October 31, 1942:
Pope Pius XII consecrates the Church and the human race to the Immaculate Heart
of Mary during the Silver Jubilee of Our Lady’s Apparitions at Fatima and of
the Episcopal Consecration of the same Pontiff. We shall say much more about
this later.
December 8, 1942:
Pope Pius XII substantially repeats the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of
Mary, this time in the Italian language, in Saint Peter’s Basilica on the Feast
of the Immaculate Conception.
July 7, 1952:
Pope Pius XII, on the Feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, consecrates the
Russian people to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by way of his Apostolic Letter, Carissimis
Russiae Populis, with which he stated: “ . . . therefore,
just as not many years ago We consecrated the entire world to the Immaculate
Heart of the Virgin Mother of God, in a most special way, so now We dedicate and
consecrate all the peoples of Russia to that same Immaculate Heart, . . . .”[1]
November 21, 1964:
Pope Paul VI, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mary in the
Temple, alone consecrates Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, albeit in the
presence of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in Saint
Peter’s Basilica as the third session concludes. The Pontiff referred to the
Consecration of 1942 made by Pope Pius XII and then said: “O Virgin Mother of
God, most august Mother of the Church, We commend the whole Church and the
Ecumenical Council to you. ( . . . ) O Virgin Mother of God, we commend the
entire human race to your Immaculate Heart.”[2]
This Consecration is joined to the proclamation of Mary as the Mater Ecclesiae.[3]
June 7, 1981:
Pope John Paul II, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, directs that a recording of
the Act of Entrustment of the world, with a veiled reference to Russia, to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary that he authored in gratitude for the preservation of
life after the assassination attempt of approximately three weeks earlier, be
broadcast in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, Rome. This is also 1,600th
Anniversary of the First Council of Constantinople (381), which reaffirmed the
divinity of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, and the 1,550th
Anniversary of the Council of Ephesus (431), which declared Our Lady to be the Theotokos.[4]
May 13, 1982:
Pope John Paul II invites the Bishops of the world to join him in consecrating
the world and with it Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Many Bishops do
not receive the invitation in time for the Pope's trip to Fatima, where he accomplishes
the Papal Consecration. The Holy Father traveled to Fatima to celebrate Mass on
the first anniversary of the assassination attempt and the sixth-five
anniversary of the first Fatima appearance of Our Lady. “To prepare for the
consecration, Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, then Vatican Secretary of State, had
sent a letter (dated April 19, 1982) to the world’s bishops informing them of the Holy Father’s
intention to renew ‘in spiritual union with all the bishops of the world’ the
consecration of the world by Pius XII to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[5]
At the conclusion of the Mass, Pope John Paul II made the Act of Consecration.
Later, Sister Lucia, in praiseworthy consistency, states that the Papal
Consecration of 1982 did not fulfill the required conditions, which are that
the Bishops of the world need to join the Pope in the Act of Consecration,
thereby making it clearly a collegial act, and the country of Russia is to be
the specific object of the Papal Consecration.[6]
October 29, 1983:
Pope John Paul II, during the closing Mass of the VI Ordinary General Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops ("Penance
and Reconciliation in the Mission of the Church"), renews the 1982 Act of Consecration using the same text.
Near Cardinals and Bishops present from around the world, the Holy Father
repeated the Act of Consecration of the World to the Mother of God that he made
at the Shrine of Fatima seventeen months earlier.[7]
March 25, 1984:
Pope John Paul II, “united with all the pastors of the Church in a
particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college,” consecrates to
the Immaculate Heart of Mary “the whole world,
especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have
particular love and solicitude.” The Holy Father, aware that many
Bishops had not joined in during the 1982 Consecration, had decided to do it
anew. The Pontiff sent a letter, dated December 8, 1983, to the Bishops of the
world (including some Orthodox Bishops), inviting them to join him in the Act
of Consecration. The Pontiff did not specifically mention Russia out loud.
Though doubts persist to this day about the validity of the 1984 Papal
Consecration, it is recorded that Sister Lucia indicated several times that it
had been carried out in accord with Our Lady’s wishes.[8]
Sister Lucia informed the Papal Nuncio to Portugal that the Consecration had
been fulfilled.[9]
[1] http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/la/apost_letters/documents/hf_p-xii_apl_19520707_sacro-vergente-anno.html. This Apostolic
Letter is also known as Sacro Vergente
Anno.
[2] Pope Paul VI, “Allocution
on the Promulgation of the Conciliar Constitution De Ecclesia and of the Decrees on Oriental Churches and on
Ecumenism” http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/la/speeches/1964/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19641121_conclusions-iii-sessions.html.
[3] For a short
treatment of the background before the 1964 Consecration, cf. Arthur Burton
Calkins, Totus Tuus: John Paul II’s
Program of Marian Consecration and Entrustment (Libertyville, Illinois: Academy
of the Immaculate, 1992), 107-108.
[4] Cf. Apostoli,
190.
[5] Rev. Dwight P.
Campbell, The Historical Development
& Theological Foundations of
Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Relation to the Sacred Heart of
Jesus (Dayton, Ohio: Marian Library/International Marian Research
Institute, 2009), 420-421.
[6] Cf. Campbell,
423-424.
[7]
http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/consecra.htm#JP2b.
[8] Cf. Apostoli,
196-199.
[9] Cf. Father
Antonio Maria Martins, S.J., Documents on
Fatima & the Memoirs of Sister Lucia,
with a Pictorial Documentary and
Historical Update by Father Robert J. Fox (Alexandria, South Dakota: Fatima
Family Apostolate, 2002), 13.
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