Pope Francis’ October 13 Entrustment

No Mention of “Consecration”, No Mention of
“Immaculate Heart”, No Mention of “World”
by John Vennari

“Pope Francis Consecrates World to the Immaculate Heart”. This was the headline from EWTN, from Vatican Radio, from the National Catholic Register, and other Catholic news outlets.

Unfortunately these headlines are not accurate. Pope Francis’ “Entrustment” ceremony at the Vatican on October 13, 2013, contained no mention of “Consecration”, no mention of the “Immaculate Heart”, and no mention of “world”.

While any public Papal devotion to Our Lady is welcome, it must be said that Pope Francis did not consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart, but made a kind of general “Entrustment” to Our Lady. This despite Father Nicholas Gruner’s good and valiant efforts to spread awareness in Rome for the proper Consecration of Russia in the weeks immediately prior to the Pope’s ceremony.

We will first look at Pope Francis’ October prayer, and contrast it with the Consecration prayer of the Bishops of Portugal in the 1930s.

Act of Entrustment to Mary
Pope Francis: October 13, 2013

Blessed Virgin Mary of Fatima, with renewed gratitude for Your maternal presence we unite our voice with that of all the generations who call You blessed.

We celebrate in You the great works of God, Who never tires to incline with mercy on humanity, afflicted by evil and wounded by sin, to heal it and save it.

Accept with the compassion of a Mother the act of entrustment which today we make with confidence, before this Your image to us so dear.

We are certain that each one of us is precious to Your eyes and that nothing which dwells in our hearts is unknown to You.

Let us reach Your sweet gaze and receive the consoling caress of Your smile.

Guard our life in Your arms: bless and strengthen every good desire; revive and foster faith; sustain and illumine hope; create and enliven charity; guide all of us in the path of holiness.

Teach us Your same preferential love for the  small and the poor, for the excluded and the suffering, for sinners and the lost: gather all under Your protection  and give all of us to Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus.[1]

Compare this “Entrustment” with the impressive, militant Consecration prayer by the Portuguese Bishops. Their prayer is a kind of “gold standard” of Consecration that we can rely on to contrast any other such prayer in our time. On May 13, 1931, three hundred thousand of the faithful came to Fatima for the Bishops of Portugal’s Consecration of Portugal to the Immaculate Heart. Their prayer reads:

  “The Shepherds chosen by Your Son to watch over and feed in His name the sheep He has acquired at the price of His blood — in this ‘Land of Holy Mary’, whose name cannot be pronounced without pronouncing Your own — come today — as the officials and consecrated representatives of their flocks, and in an act of filial homage of faith, love and trust — to solemnly consecrate the Portuguese nation to Your Immaculate Heart. Take it from our fragile hands into Your own; defend it and guard it as Your own property; make Jesus reign, conquer and rule in it. Outside of Him there is no salvation.”

 “We, the pontiffs of your people, feel a terrible storm raging around us, threatening to disperse and destroy the faithful flock of those who bless You because You are the Mother of Jesus. Afflicted, we stretch out our suppliant hands towards Your Son, as we cry out: ‘Save us, O Lord, for we perish! …’

 “Intercede for Portugal, O Our Lady, in this grave hour when from the East blow furious winds, bringing cries of death against Your Son and against the civilization founded on His teachings, deceiving minds, perverting hearts, and lighting the fires of hatred and revolution in the world. Help of Christians, pray for us!”

“Intercede for Portugal, Our Lady, in this troubled hour when the unclean waves of an open immorality, which has even lost the notion of sin, exalt the rehabilitation of the flesh in the face of the very Cross of Your Son, threatening to choke in this world the lily of virtue nourished by the Eucharistic Blood of Jesus. Virgin most Powerful, pray for us!

“Intercede for Portugal, Our Lady, in this hour of passions and doubts when even the good run the risk of being lost … Unite all the Portuguese people around Your Son, in the love of the Church and also in the cultivation of virtue, in respect for order and fraternal charity. Queen of Peace, pray for us.

“Remember finally, Patroness of our country, that Portugal once taught so many lands to proclaim You blessed among all women. In remembrance of what it once did for Your glory, Our Lady of Fatima, save it, by giving it Jesus, in Whom it will find Truth, Life and Peace.”[2]



As a result of this Consecration, which clearly used the words “Consecration,” “Immaculate Heart”, and plainly noted the objection of the Consecration: “Portugal” – and also mentioned the contemporary evils that needed to be opposed –  Our Lady graced Portugal with what has been called a three-fold miracle of conversion: 1) The restoration of Catholic life; 2) the restoration of Catholic social order; 3) the miracle of Peace: Portugal was spared from the ravages of the Spanish Civil War raging right next door, and Portugal was spared from the horrors of the Second World War.[3]

Notes:

1. Text supplied by Fatima Center workers in Rome who were at the Vatican for the ceremony.
2. From The Whole Truth About Fatima, Vol. II, “The Secret and the Church,” Frere Michel, Immaculate Heart publications, p. 437.
3. For a more complete story of the Consecration of Portugal and its Remarkable Effects, go to “The Consecration of Portugal and the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart (John Vennari), http://www.fatima.org/peaceconf/spainport06/transcripts/jv_1.asp?printer

http://www.cfnews.org/page88/files/323745fe729940ab655a46013cacdcf7-150.html