The Forgotten History of the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the Popes of the 20th Century

In her apparitions, Mary refers substantially to the Gospel and to its values, such as prayer, conversion, the Eucharist, the acceptance of the cross, and reparative solidarity with sinners.

In a general way, from the various apparitions of contemporary history we can infer some general aspects that become concrete in the Apparitions of Fatima: 

a) the handing on of practices of piety, prayer, and conversion with Our Lady of Fatima moves on to an authentic spirituality, condensed in the devotion and consecration to her Immaculate Heart. 

b) from a purely spiritual vision, Our Lady of Fatima moves to a historical and political perspective, which speaks of wars and peace and focuses on the longest and most terrible phenomenon of the 20th century: communist Russia. 

c) from solicitude for the present of the Church and of the world, Our Lady of Fatima moves to solicitude for the future and hands over to the shepherd children the famous secret in its three parts. 

d) from a few apparitions (18 at Lourdes) Our Lady of Fatima prolongs her dialogue with humanity for almost a century through Sister Lúcia (born on March 30, 1907, died on February 13, 2005), favored with other apparitions at Pontevedra and Tuy that explain and complete the message given to the three shepherd children. 

e) from a restricted influence we pass to a universal influence on the piety of the faithful and even of bishops and popes, and in particular of John Paul II, who attributes his escape from mortal danger in the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981, to the intervention of Our Lady of Fatima

After having addressed succinctly the requests, the concrete realizations, and the spiritual axes that normally accompany the pilgrims of the Shrine of Fatima, we now turn our gaze to the Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the various Popes. 

The silence of Pius XI (1922-1939)

The Portuguese Bishops asked Pope Pius XI to consecrate Russia to the Most Holy Hearts of Jesus and Mary, emphasizing that this was a request of the apparitions of Fatima; the response was an absolute silence, owing to the Holy See’s tradition of reserve regarding private revelations.  

The sensitivity of Pius XII (1939-1958)

Regarding the position of Pius XII, Lúcia wrote to him several times to tell him that “the moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means”. 

Some words of this letter of October 24, 1940, precisely those referring to the bishops, were omitted in the letter of December 2 of the same year at the suggestion of her superiors, in order to facilitate the acceptance of the request in the Vatican. Pius XII showed himself sensitive to Fatima by consecrating the holy Church and the whole world on October 31, 1942, and by solemnly repeating it on December 8 of the same year. On December 15, 1951, Lúcia confirmed what she had already expressed, namely, that the request of Our Lady concerning Russia was not fulfilled.

Let us recall that at that precise moment the context of Pius XII was one of practical impossibility of making a consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Why?

Schismatic as a religious unit because they are Orthodox, Marxist as a political unit because they are communists, Russia could not be consecrated by the Pope without that act taking on a defiant course, both with respect to the separated hierarchy the patriarch of Moscow and to the Union of Soviet Republics which after the Second World War constituted a united bloc. This made the consecration practically impossible. It is clear that what is at issue here is only a moral impossibility of consecration, because of the reactions that it would normally provoke.

Nevertheless, Pius XII, on July 7, 1952, did not hesitate to consecrate in a very special way all the peoples of Russia to the Immaculate Heart, and in the encyclical Ad coeli reginam (October 11, 1954) he orders the bishops that on the same day (May 31, the institution of the Feast of Our Lady as Queen) the consecration of the human race to her Immaculate Heart be renewed. All this instills in us great hope that a new era will arise, illumined by Christian peace and by the triumph of religion.

A forgotten element in this document is the attempt, without entering into diplomatic ruptures, to launch an appeal to the Soviet peoples:

In some regions of the earth there is no lack of those who are unjustly persecuted for the sake of the Christian name and who find themselves deprived of the divine and human rights of freedom. To avert such evils, justified requests and repeated protests have achieved nothing to this day. Upon those innocent and tormented children may she turn her eyes of mercy, the powerful Lady of events and of times, whose light dispels clouds and calms storms, who knows how to conquer wickedness with her virginal foot. May she grant them to be able soon to enjoy the freedom that is their due and to fulfill their religious duties publicly. And, serving the cause of the Gospel with their concerted effort and outstanding virtues, of which in the midst of so many difficulties they give an example, may they contribute to the strengthening and progress of earthly societies.

The timidity of Saint John XXIII (1958-1963)

As for Pope Roncalli, although he was a simple soul always open to heavenly suggestions, his Enlightenment formation led him to great reluctance concerning consecrations to the Sacred Heart or to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As for the secret of Fatima, John XXIII had it in his hands on August 17, 1959, and read it a few days later with his confessor, Msgr. Alfredo Cavagna, and with the Portuguese translator Msgr. Tavares. The content was communicated to the heads of the Secretariat of State and of the Holy Office and to others, including Cardinal Grégoire-Pierre XV Agagianian  and Msgr. Loris Capovilla. The pope made no comment and preferred not to reveal it, leaving that task to his successors. According to the testimony of Fr. Alonso, John XXIII is said to have declared: This does not concern the years of my pontificate.

The courage of Saint Paul VI (1963-1978)

In the midst of the Second Vatican Council, concluding the third session (November 21, 1964), Paul VI renewed the consecration of “the whole human race to the protection of the Queen of Heaven” with reference to Fatima and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 

Let us listen to the words:

While in ardent prayer We turn Our soul to the Virgin, that she may bless the Ecumenical Council and the whole Church, hastening the hour of union among all Christians, Our gaze opens out to the endless horizons of the entire world, the object of the most lively attention of the Ecumenical Council, and which Our predecessor Pius XII, of venerable memory, not without inspiration from on high, solemnly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We judge it opportune to recall that act of consecration today in a particular way. To this end, We have resolved to send shortly, by means of a special mission, the Golden Rose to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, so dear not only to the people of the noble Portuguese nation, always, yet today particularly, dear to us, but also known and venerated by the faithful of the whole Catholic world. Thus We too intend to entrust to the care of the heavenly Mother the entire human family, with its problems and its anxieties, with its legitimate aspirations and its ardent hopes.

There is no mention of Russia out of respect for the Russian observers invited to the Council. 

An event of great historical significance is the pilgrimage of Saint Paul VI to Fatima on May 13, 1967, at the invitation of the Portuguese episcopate. The religious purpose is placed in the foreground because the Pope intends to invoke the intercession of Mary on behalf of the internal peace of the Church, of civil and social peace in the world, of the peace of humanity (May 3, 1967).

On the same date Paul VI publishes the apostolic exhortation Signum magnum, in which he invites all the children of the Church to consecrate themselves personally anew to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of the Church. Paul VI, however, has the merit of going against the tide by paying attention to charismatic events in the Church, such as the event of Fatima with the apparitions of Mary to the shepherd children, which constitutes the occasion of the Signum magnum and of his pilgrimage to the Portuguese shrine.

Far from stopping at the exteriority of a gesture, however sacred and solemn, the Pope grasps the heart of the message of Fatima when he invites us to legitimize and personalize the consecration of the Church and of man to Mary, Mother of God, and to her Immaculate Heart, carried out by Pius XII in 1942 and renewed by him in council in 1964, as we have just read in the text cited above.

At this stage, the surpassing of the magisterial or collective gesture is brought about by the passage to the personal assimilation of the act of entrustment, which results in a consequent life of ever greater adherence to the salvific will of the Father and of identification with Mary, handmaid of the Lord and model of virtue.

This means not stopping at the recitation of a formula, even if this constitutes the most noble act of worship, but passing on to the commitment of life: to the pronouncement of oneself, as K. Rahner would say, to fidelity to the commitments arising from baptism, Saint Louis G. de Montfort would say.

Saint John Paul II, the pope of Fatima (1978-2005)

To John Paul II, the extraordinary Pope of Mary in the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981, when the pistol of the young Turk Alì Agcà struck him in the abdomen with two bullets, we owe two important fundamental gestures in relation to Fatima: the consecration of the world involving all the bishops with a clear, though not explicit, reference to Russia (March 25, 1985) and the revelation of the third part of the secret (May 13, 2000).

On May 13, 1982, on the pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Mary for having saved his life, the pope carries out an act of consecration to Mary in which the reference to Russia is manifested both in the declared intention of renewing the consecration carried out by Pius XII in 1942 and in 1952:  we consecrate to you in a special way those men and those nations that particularly need this entrustment and this consecration. In the same act there is the Pope’s concern to carry it out “in union with all the pastors of the Church and previously Cardinal Casaroli announced to the bishops in a letter dated April 20, 1982, that the Holy Father had the intention of renewing, in union with all the bishops of the world, the two acts performed by Pius XII.

John Paul II, having decided to proceed with a renewal of the act of consecration on the day of the Annunciation of 1984, sent a letter to the bishops on December 8, 1983, asking them to renew this act together with me, choosing the manner that each one will consider most suitable. The meaning of this act is seen by the pope as: a profession of faith in the infinite saving power of the Redemption […] through the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God, who in a very particular way experienced that saving power.

The consecration is carried out by the pope on March 24, 1984, in Saint Peter’s Square in front of the image of Our Lady of Fatima, brought for the occasion from her shrine; it is important not only for the solemnity of the rite, but also for some small changes, yet significant ones, made to the text recited at Fatima: in the first place, a strong emphasis on the collegiality of the act and the mention of those peoples who await our act of consecration and entrustment. 

What does it mean today for Pope Francis to consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

Let us see what the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy says

174. On the day following the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church celebrates the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The continuity of the two celebrations is in itself a liturgical sign of their close connection: the mysterium of the Heart of the Savior is projected and reverberates in the Heart of the Mother, who is also companion and disciple. Just as the solemnity of the Sacred Heart celebrates in a synthetic way the salvific mysteries of Christ and leads them back to their source, the Heart, so too, the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a global celebration of the “cordial” association of the Mother with the salvific work of the Son: from the Incarnation, to the death and resurrection, to the gift of the Spirit.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary became very widespread after the apparitions of the Virgin at Fatima in 1917. On its 25th anniversary, in 1942, Pius XII consecrated the Church and humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and in 1944 the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was extended to the whole Church.

204. Throughout the history of piety, various personal and collective experiences of consecration-entrustment-offering to the Virgin are found (oblatio, servitus, commendatio, dedicatio). They are reflected in the prayer manuals and in the statutes of the Marian associations, in which we find formulas of “consecration” and prayers in view of it or in memory of it. 

With regard to the pious practice of “consecration to Mary”, expressions of appreciation from the Roman Pontiffs are not rare, and the formulas with which it is publicly recited are well known.

A well-known master of the spirituality underlying this practice is Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, who proposed to Christians the consecration to Christ through the hands of Mary, as an effective means for living the baptismal commitments faithfully.

In the light of the testament of Christ (cf. Jn 19:25-27a), the act of consecration is in fact the conscious recognition of the singular place that Mary of Nazareth occupies in the mystery of Christ and of the Church, of her  exemplary and universal evangelical witness, of the trust in her intercession and in the efficacy of her patronage, of the manifold maternal function that she exercises, as true mother in the order of grace, on behalf of all and of each one of her children.

However, it should be noted that the term consecration is used with a certain breadth and impropriety: one says, for example, to consecrate children to Our Lady, when in reality the intention is merely to place the children under the protection of the Virgin and to ask her for her maternal blessing. We also understand the suggestion coming from many quarters to use other terms, such as entrustment or donation, instead of consecration. In fact, in our time, the progress of liturgical theology and the consequent need for a rigorous use of terms suggest reserving the term consecration for the offering of oneself that has God as its term, totality and perpetuity as its characteristics, the intervention of the Church as its guarantee, and the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation as its foundation.

In any case, with regard to this practice it is necessary to instruct the faithful about its nature. Although it presents the characteristics of a total and perennial gift: it is only analogical with respect to consecration to God. It must be the fruit not of a passing emotion, but of a personal, free decision, matured in the context of an exact vision of the dynamism of grace. It must be expressed correctly, along a line that is, so to speak, liturgical: to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit, imploring the glorious intercession of Mary, to whom one entrusts oneself totally, faithfully observing the baptismal commitments and living in a filial attitude toward Him. It must be carried out outside the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, since it is a gesture of devotion that cannot be equated with the Liturgy: entrustment to Mary is substantially distinct from other forms of liturgical consecration.

The effects of the act requested by Our Lady will not fail to come about, even if God’s times do not coincide with our measures.

To go deeper into the theology of consecration to Mary and devotion to the Immaculate Heart, consult the apostolic exhortation Marialis Cultus by Paul VI.

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