Answer: It was on July 13, 1917 that Our Lady of Fatima announced to the three children: “I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the communion of reparation on the first Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causingwars and persecutions of the Church”. It was on June 13, 1929 that Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia in Tuy and announced: “This is the moment when God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart.. .He promises to save it by that means.” Later on, Sister Lucia affirmed that Our Lord intimated to her that these requests would not be heeded, that the consecration would be done too late and that “Russia will have spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wares and persecutions against the Church”.

 Many efforts have been made over the decades to accomplish this request. Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942, and again Russia in particular and by name on July 7, 1952. In May 1982 and again in 1984 Pope John Paul II made an entrustment of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. However, none of these fully responded to the request, as formulated by Sister Lucia in a letter to her confessor, dated  May 29, 1930: “The Good God promises to make an end of the persecution in Russia if the Holy Father deigns to make, and orders to be made, by all the Bishops of the Catholic world a solemn and public act of reparation and consecration of Russia to the Most Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and if, in return for the end of this persecution His Holiness promises to approve and to recommend the practice of reparatory devotion (the first five Saturdays).”  For none were performed by all the bishops of the world in a spirit of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The errors that Russia were to spread throughout the world were those of atheistic communism and marxism. For the communist revolution took place in Russia just months after the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, and for more than 70 years Russia became the most powerful source of the revolution against God, spreading it throughout China, many countries in Africa, Cuba and many countries in South America. This produced a denial of God, radical secularism, the refusal of any influence of religion in public life and a refusal of the commandments of God, pure materialism, flagrant immorality and widespread abortion. During those years many millions of souls were killed in the persecutions and wars brought about by this revolution.

In 1988 Russia celebrated the millenium of the conversion of St. Vladimir, the first Catholic prince, baptized in Kiev in 988. The following year the communist regime fell apart, and by 1991 the former USSR was broken up into independent republics. Russia was no longer an atheist country, and freedom of religion was once more granted. However, by this stage its errors had penetrated the West, where the same radical secularism and atheist mentality has produced the war on God which is now seen in Europe, and is characterized by the woke agenda – that is a denial of the natural law, of marriage, of the difference between a man and a woman and the enabling of all kinds of perversity from homosexuality to euthanasia. Western Europe is consequently now spreading the same errors that Russia previously had spread for 70 years, but in a manner that is not so violent and which is consequently seen to be socially acceptable.

Clearly, there is a spiritual reason behind the change in Russia. It is not yet the conversion of Russia announced by Our Lady of Fatima, since the consecration has not yet been done. But the prayers and First Saturday devotions have certainly borne fruit. Russia now stands up against the woke culture, which is the fruit of the atheistic culture she exported to the West. She now wants to be a Christian country. However, there is a problem. The Russian Orthodox church is now greatly enabled in Russia. But it is seen as an instrument of national unity, and consequently of the state. It is constantly invoked for the war effort against Ukraine, and has become a means of control by  the Russian government, as it was in the time of the Czars. This is characteristic of the Orthodox schism, in which the church is seen to be at the service of the state. This is not the true Catholic Faith at all. It remains in schism, and has no intention to return to Catholic unity, nor does it concern itself with reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It is true that Russia now stands up for the natural law and for Christian principles concerning marriage, refusing homosexuality for example, and that the number of abortions is little by little diminishing. However, it is using ta moral argument as a justification for its war on the Ukraine, that is against the corrupt West. It is right that the West is corrupt, but wrong in taking an immoral means, an unjust war resulting in the death of millions of persons for the sake of political power.

So it must be said that the errors of Marxism, communism, secularism and the denial of God are no longer being spread by Russia as they once were, but that they are now being spread worldwide. Russia has certainly come a long way, but it has not yet converted, and it continues to export an exaggerated nationalism which denies the supernatural order, and the divine economy present in the mystical body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church. If the consecration were to finally be made and if Russia were to convert, Russia would have an extraordinary power to transform the world and to bring about the social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why Our Lady requested the consecration and it is for this that we should pray.