Fatima Perspectives #1305
While Pope Francis obsesses over “climate change” and maximizing the number of military-age Muslim immigrants to be foisted upon European countries, another politician has followed the lead of Matteo Salvini, whose hand Francis will not shake, by appealing to God and His Blessed Mother for the right ordering of politics. As LifeSiteNews reports, on Tuesday of this week, “Brazil was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in a ceremony that included President Jair Bolsonaro and Bishop Fernando Areas Rifan.” Bishop Rifan is head of the Personal Apostolic Administration of St. Jean Marie Vianney, erected by Pope John Paul II for traditionalist Catholic clergy and laity in the Brazilian diocese of Campos who had refused to go along with the disastrous — and never actually mandated — liturgical and other “reforms” launched in the name of Vatican II. Areas and the organization he heads celebrate the traditional Latin Mass exclusively.
LifeSite notes that “A statue of the Virgin Mary, which depicts her as she appeared to child visionaries in Fatima, Portugal, was at the ceremony and will remain in a place of honor in the presidential palace.” The proclamation of the national consecration bears the signatures of President Bolsonaro, Floriano Peixoto, a cabinet minister, Eros Biondini, a national deputy, Bishop Rifan, and Bishop emeritus João Evangelista Martins Terra of Brasilia, which is the capital city of Brazil. Tellingly, and not surprisingly, the feckless Brazilian Bishops’ Conference abstained from the event.
LifeSite further reports that “During the ceremony, participants prayed the rosary and sang a Marian hymn, accompanied by a number of nuns. Sister Kelly Patrícia, one of the founders of the Hesed Institute, a Catholic community, sang at the ceremony. According to a statement from the presidential palace, she said, ‘When it comes to the heart of Mary, it means great things.’”Top of Form
Steve Skojec at onepeterfive.com reports an important caveat that comes by way of e-mail from Vitor Sousa, an engineering student who provided details concerning the event:
“It was expected that the president himself would read the consecration; however, he only watched the 30-minute ceremony that preceded it and then exited the hall, in a way that caught the organizers by surprise. In the absence of the president, Bishop [Areas] Rifan read the formula consecrating the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary….
“Bolsonaro’s exit at the moment of the consecration is attributed to the political support of the Protestant group of deputies, an important part of his government’s base at the Congress. As his government pursues an agenda of many reforms, he can’t lose the support of this group, which is composed mainly of evangelical pastors. However, in a country that hasn’t had any Catholic protagonists in politics until recently, some of the new congressmen elected last year (who organized this event) are showing the Protestants that Catholics are still the majority in the Brazilian population.”
Nevertheless, Bolsonaro signed the proclamation of the consecration whereas, as Sousa notes, the Bishops’ Conference of Brazil [CNBB], like Francis in Italy, “continuously opposes the government and is associated with socialist movements and parties.” Sousa further reports that Catholics at large “are fighting… to recover from decades of the influence of Liberation Theology on the local Church, and the laity have been the principal part of this movement. Many leaders are arising, such as Chris Tonietto, Bernardo Kuster, and the ‘centers’ such as ‘Centro Dom Bosco.’ The CNBB, meanwhile, is widely discredited due to its opposition to conservative politicians and defense of socialist parties and politicians.”
Once again, we see how the laity, led by younger Catholics, are attempting a revival of the Catholic spirit in once Catholic countries while the old men of Vatican II, including the current occupant of the Chair of Peter, are doggedly attempting to drag the Church back into their heyday of the Seventies.
As Father Gruner used to say, quoting Our Lord’s own words: “I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40). Thus did Our Lord respond to the Pharisees when they demanded that He rebuke His disciples for hailing Him as the King sent by God, the long-awaited Messiah. Today, as the generality of the Catholic hierarchy “hold their peace” concerning the Social Kingship of Christ and even inveigh against it, it is the laity who — if only instinctively and out of political desperation — cry out the truth about His role as Lord of History and that of His Mother as Queen of His universal realm.
The kingdom of Christ, to quote Pius XI, “includes not only Catholic nations, not only baptized persons who, though of right belonging to the Church, have been led astray by error, or have been cut off from her by schism, but also all those who are outside the Christian faith; so that truly the whole of mankind is subject to the power of Jesus Christ.” That divine truth is at the heart of the Message of Fatima and its call for the Consecration of Russia — apart from Brazil, Italy and all the other nations of the earth — to Mary’s Immaculate Heart.
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