The Holy See press office announced March 15 that the pope plans to consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25 at 5 p.m. in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. EWTN will broadcast the ceremony live beginning at 12 noon ET.
Mokrzycki’s conversation with CNA — and another interview he gave earlier in the day to a Ukrainian journalist working for St. Rita Radio, an EWTN radio affiliate in Norway — shed light on what led to Pope Francis’ surprising decision, which is closely linked to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. For more about the consecration’s meaning and origins, read CNA’s explainer here.
“During this painful and difficult situation of war, we continued to pray, to celebrate the Holy Mass, to adore the Holy Sacrament, to fast and to offer our sufferings requesting God’s mercy. We were joined by the whole world in this, but we see that the war continues,” Mokrzyck told CNA in a telephone interview, speaking in Italian.
“So we recalled Our Lady of Fatima, who in 1917 said that the end of the war would come if the Holy Father and the bishops consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, offer the first Saturdays of every month and pray the Holy Rosary. So we requested the Holy Father to fulfill that request once again,” he explained.
“This was our desire, this was the voice of all the Ukrainian people,” Mokrzyck said in his interview with St. Rita Radio. “We as Latin rite bishops, in our bishops’ conference, we went to the Holy Father, we addressed him a letter with this cry because we still have the hope that this war may end soon.
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