It was repeated by Pope John Paul II when he came to Fatima on 13May 1982, in order to thank the Mother of God for saving his life in the assassination attempt. When he was somewhat recovered from the attack, he asked for the entire documentation of the Fatima revelations and studied it in-depth. On the anniversary of the assassination attempt he took the bullet that was meant to kill him to Fatima in placed it in the crown of the Fatima Figure, and the bullet settled in a free spot as if it had been made for it. But this is only a curiosity, and for people of faith – one of the signs.

John Paul II’s Eastern Policy

The essence of the matter is the consecration of Russia, since John Paul II dedicated a lot of time and activity to eastern policy. He had not been an Italian cardinal who shaped their imagination of attitudes prevalent in the communist camp on the basis of university textbooks often written by historians fascinated by the communist vision of the world, or even dependent upon communist parties active in the West. Karol Wojtyla not only knew these “attitudes” based on his own experience, but he also knew what the situation of the churches was in the countries in the communist camp.

It is not without reason that “his” primate, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, for years carried out his own, you could say, eastern policy, and he did not agree for the Vatican diplomats to carry on discussions with the communist authorities behind his back. Moreover, he was authorized by successive popes to care for the delegalized and persecuted Greco-Catholic Church, he also led secret ordinations of priests, not only from Lviv or other cities of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, but also in Czechoslovakia.

Bishop Pavel Hnilica SJ and Josef Tomko (today, at 98, the oldest cardinal of the Church), both Slovaks, quickly became close and deeply trusted collaborators of John Paul II in this area.

Two Acts

Hnilica (1921-2006) could be the hero of a really sensational film, but this article is not about him. It is enough to mention that as a young man and candidate to the clergy and religious order, he came to know the Fatima revelations – of course, without the secrets deposited in the Vatican archives – and they moved him deeply.

Ordained in secret, both as a priest and a year later as a bishop (1952), he managed to leave Czechoslovakia and worked in the Vatican. Already in 1981 he asked the pope from Poland to consecrate Russia – and he was the clergyman who brought the documentation of the Fatima secret from the secret archive to the recovering Holy Father.

He remained in regular contact with Sister Lucia dos Santos, who, in the quiet of the Carmelite convent in Coimbra (Portugal), she kept waiting for the fulfillment of the orders conveyed through her in 1917 by the Holy Virgin. It was to him that Sister Lucia said that the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary carried out by John Paul II in Fatima, on the anniversary of the assassination attempt, did not fulfill the order of the Mother of God, because it did not include a specific consecration of Russia and the act was not carried out in unity with bishops from around the world.

So John Paul II decided to repeat this gesture two years later – 25 March 1984 in the Basilica of St. Peter. When news of the planned ceremony reached Bishop Hnilica, he happened to be in India, where he was in discussions with Mother Theresa of Calcutta on the subject of the wild project to install her sisters in Moscow. He confided his dream to her, of also carrying out the act of consecration in Moscow, and Mother Theresa gave him her rosary and encouraged him not to delay and act and go.

Bishop Hnilica unexpectedly received a visa to the USSR, he barely spent half a day in Moscow – in a Kremlin church that had been turned into a museum, he performed a hidden mass and said the act of consecration of Russia – and on 25 March he managed to be with the pope in Rome where there also were five Orthodox patriarchs.

Sister Lucia confirms – she writes in her memoirs about Bishop Hnilica – that this act conformed with what the Mother of God had asked for.

A year later, Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Kremlin.

With or Without Russia

On the territories belonging to the Soviet Union, the Roman Catholic Church began to revive, as well as the Greek Catholic Church, condemned by the communists to cease to exist. The first Roman Catholic ordinary of the European part of Russia became Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who immediately made a pilgrimage to Fatima.

Today he is a senior archbishop and in an interview for KAI, he remembered that time like this: “With sister Lucia, who told us the will of the Mother of God concerning the consecration of Russia, I met three times. When, for the first time, in October 1991, even before the final collapse of the USSR, I came to Fatima and I wanted to visit her right away. But it was not so simple. You had to have the permission of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and at the time it was headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. We telephoned to Rome and received his permission.

I went to the convent in Coimbra where Sister Lucia was staying. I introduced myself as the bishop from Moscow. Sister Lucia did not believe this at first and asked about it several times. Then she called out: “Well, the Fatima prediction is coming true!” We spoke further about the persecution of the church in Russia and about the country being on the road to conversion. Sister admitted that the offering of the Immaculate Heart of Mary to Russia, which John Paul II carried out 25 March 1984 was the fulfillment of the will of the Mother of God and that it was carried out exactly as She asked.”

Some commentators note, which is true, that in the official “source” text of John Paul II with the act of consecration from 25 March 1984, the word “Russia” does not appear, though it appears in the letters that John Paul II sent to bishops of the world. There is no doubt however that Sister Lucia unambiguously spoke about the acceptance of this act of consecration and there are also letters on this subject.

It is difficult to suspect John Paul II of concerns about using this exact word, since he did not mince words when he addressed a personal letter three years earlier to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev concerning Poland. So why does the word “Russia” not appear in the text?

An explanation can be found in another reflection of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz from the aforementioned interview: “In Russia, questions were often posed, especially among Orthodox, that if the Mother of God spoke of the conversion of their country, did She mean its conversion to Catholicism? Sister Lucia declared that it meant Russia’s conversion from atheism. She also clearly spoke about cooperation with the Orthodox Church in the act of this conversion. She emphasized that the Orthodox Church is a sister Church and that together we must be involved in the work of evangelization. Because the Gospel is the same, the same holy sacraments, so we must together go to the world. She repeated this several times and gave me a figure of Our Lady of Fatima, with the request that I give it to Patriarch Aleksei II, Superior of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Real Patriarch

Fortunately, not all matters of the unity of Christians, including dialogue with the Orthodox, are as complicated as those with Moscow Orthodoxy. The unexpected visit to Warsaw (27-30 March) of Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodoxy from Constantinople, is a wonderful, inspiring example of sensitivity, unity and solidarity with refugees from Ukraine, suffering brothers in the faith (though, of course, it will also be considered in its political aspect, since the Moscow Patriarchate prevented Orthodox from Ukraine from tying themselves to Constantinople.

The position of the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Russian aggression is not only a rejection of a sisterly or brotherly stance, but is also a refutation of Christianity, so any reflections resulting from the Fatima revelations should be taken up anew and there should be new interpretations.

The relations between Rome and Moscow Orthodoxy are still difficult and unclear, and in the situation of Russian aggression against Ukraine and the murder of civilians, they have to be put on the back burner. But it is a fact that Bishop Hnilica said that then in the Kremlin, in the closed church, looking at the empty throne of the Orthodox patriarch, he prayed that the real patriarch would return there.

Did he return? Many of us are asking the question today, who is Patriarch Cyril, really?

As Long as the Kiev Orant Stands

The call of Pope Francis for a common – in the unity of the entire Church – consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary thus takes on a new and even dramatic dimension. It forces the question of the personal responsibility of each Catholic for this consecration, the personal decision concerning participation in the conversion of the world. And the conversion of the world – as we know – begins from a personal conversion.

Sister Lucia – as Archbishop Kondrusiewicz recalled – “before the peregrination of the figure of Our Lady of Fatima throughout Russia, in 1996, told me some very important words – which stayed in my memory and which I repeat to this day – that speaking of conversion, the word “Russia” should be understood as the entire world, because sin has no nationality.” She also explained that conversion is a long process and it is not that straightforward.

“While we, Mother of God and our Mother, solemnly consecrate and entrust Your Immaculate Heart to ourselves, the Church and all humanity, and especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act of ours, which we carry out with trust and love; bring about an end to wars and secure peace for the world” – which we read in the Act of Consecration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In a special appeal, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki reminded that the Pope asked for all shepherds and the faithful around the world to be united in prayer at the same time, under the leadership of the Bishop of Rome. Archbishop Gądecki addressed the entire Church in Poland that in all cathedrals and churches to “raise prayers to God, and say the Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” and on this day to say masses in the intention of peace in Ukraine and the conversion of Russia.

“May evil be overcome in the north and south and in the west and east of Ukraine” – said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk in Kiev, the leader of the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine. He emphasized that “in a particular way we feel that the Immaculate Virgin Mary stands in prayer over Kiev and the Kievan hills, and we in this prayer simply join Her.”

Kiev has a special tradition of this prayer, and its addressee is the Orant of Kiev, also called the Imperturbable Wall, from an old mosaic from the 11th century. – as long as the Orant of Kiev stands, as long as the Imperturbable Wall is among us and God is in his city, Kiev, the nation and Ukraine will persist – said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk

Kiev is waiting for this prayer and is waiting for the Pope. It believes that his presence could bring a breakthrough. My article on this matter w Tygodniku TVP has been reacted to by many people, and under an appeal made at this time in Radiu Wnet to Francis to come to Kiev there are over 1,000 names. Many skeptics have asked if I believe in miracles, since I write like this. There is only one answer: miracles still occur and they are not that rare. It is just that we cannot – or we do not want to – notice them.

– Barbara Sułek-Kowalska
–Translated by Nicolas Siekierski