THE Holy Father’s call for all people to return to saying the Rosary daily, in the wake of the New York catastrophe, is timely.
For centuries, Catholics have appealed to Our Lady for protection and assistance in their lives through the medium of this prayer.
The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, commemorated on Sunday, October 7, was instituted by Pope Pius V in 1571 to honour her role in the Battle of Lepanto, which prevented Islam’s inroads into Christendom.
However, we might ask ourselves if the events in New York would ever have happened had the requests of Fatima been fulfilled.
Our Lady promised ‘an era of peace’ provided that the devotion of the First Saturdays was spread, and the consecration of Russia by the Holy Father was performed.
As to the first, despite much effort by a few lay organisations and individuals, this request has been hugely neglected.
As to the second, the very fact that there is argument over whether it has been done, with reports allegedly from Sr Lucia being contradictory, suggests that it has not been done properly.
Certainly, there is no record of the Pope having consecrated Russia by name. The suggestion that it is included in the ‘world’ consecration of 1984 is not good enough.
One is also entitled to ask of those, including Vatican officials, who believe it has been performed adequately, ‘where is the peace?’ Seventeen years later, the world is demonstrably neither better nor safer.
It is also rather curious that the Vatican should now be so concerned about a different conclusion to theirs about the consecration, that they took steps to have Fr Gruner, editor of Fatima Crusader Magazine suspended. They have often refused to act upon much more serious matters of belief, and Fr Gruner has been maintaining that the consecration was not adequate for a long time.
One wonders whether the official interpretation of events surrounding Fatima has become a dogma of faith.
The promises made by Our Lady were not empty words, but were a heaven sent opportunity for us.
Maybe this extract from the first reading from last Sunday’s Mass is apposite: ‘This vision – eager for its own fulfilment, it does not deceive if it comes slowly, wait for come it will, without fail’ (Habbakuk 2:2-3).
D. PURCELL Toowoomba, Qld
