From the Church’s Greatest Persecutor To an Instrument in Our Lady’s Hands
Marx and Lenin are poor guides to the true nature of Communism. As Fatima scholar Frère Michel de la Sainte Trinité demonstrates so well in his monumental work The Whole Truth about Fatima, we can learn much better from history itself than from their confused and lying texts what the Russian Revolution was about. But Frère Michel points out one line of Lenin’s ravings that has proven to be absolutely true: namely, his apocalyptic claim that there is no force in the world which can prevent the Bolsheviks from accomplishing their objective of a World Socialist Revolution.[1] That diabolic boast is but another way of expressing Our Lady of the Rosary’s admonition at Fatima, “Only I can help you.”
Frère Michel explains:
“[S]ince 1917, we have seen a veritable apocalyptic drama, a drama unprecedented in the entire history of humanity. Never had the forces of evil been unleashed with such power, and found nothing capable of opposing them. For the other side to the drama, and the most stupefying fact of the century, is that the entire West (and to a great extent the Church itself…) obstinately refused to admit these two facts staring them in the face: Communism today is the instrument of satanic domination, and if it meets with no obstacles it will soon threaten to spread to the entire planet. For even though Bolshevik Russia became a frightful ‘showcase of hell,’ the West’s blindness is so great that Lenin’s forecasts are being fulfilled to the letter: Communism seduces all the nations before reducing them implacably to servitude.”[2]
Only Heaven, he insists, can stop that “sinister conflagration which otherwise, little by little, [is] going to ravage all the nations.”[3] Heaven’s intervention will only come about through the definitive act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary requested by Our Lady of Fatima, the Consecration of Russia, for Russia’s conversion can come about by no other means. As Our Lady told Sister Lucia in 1952 (to dispel the confusion surrounding Pope Pius XII’s consecration of the world[4]): “Make it known to the Holy Father that I still await the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart. Without that Consecration, Russia will not be able to convert, nor can the world have peace.”[5]
In 1929, Heaven was prepared to put an end to the Russian Terror. The hour – the moment – had come, Our Lady said, so anxious was She to deliver “poor Russia” from the diabolical possession and hellish horrors to which it had already been subjected for a dozen years, and to stop Russia’s errors from spreading throughout the world. Through Russia’s conversion, the impetus of Communism’s irresistible expansion would be removed.
But is that all? Was Russia’s influence only to be removed, not redirected?
As Father Gruner explained on countless occasions, Russia’s destined role in Our Lady’s coming triumph is a most privileged one. Once the Pope and the Catholic bishops have properly dedicated Russia to Our Lady’s service, She will convert it and use it as an instrument in Her hands for establishing the True Faith and the devotion to Her Immaculate Heart throughout the world.
Father Gruner devoted significant attention to this fact in his talks and writings, but the idea was not original to him. In a section of The Whole Truth about Fatima titled “A Great Design of Mercy: The Salvation of Christendom through the Conversion of Russia,”[6] Frère Michel draws close parallels between Russia and St. Paul in regard to the fact that each was chosen by God for apostleship to the nations. Frère Michel explains Russia’s role by asking rhetorically of the fall of Russia in 1917 to the antichrist forces of Judeo-Masonry and its accomplice, Stalinist Bolshevism, “[D]id not God permit this unchaining of evil to make of this nation, as He did with Saul the persecutor who ravaged the Church, ‘a vessel of mercy’?”[7]
Further in this same discussion, emphasizing again that same parallel between Russia and St. Paul – as both are taken from being a misdirected, even maddened, persecutor of the Church to being its greatest Apostle – Frère Michel asserts that God has indeed ordained such a role for Russia. It is to be raised to this exalted purpose, serving instrumentally in establishing Our Lady’s universal triumph: “God does not want to abandon it to perdition, but to make it, on the contrary, ‘a vessel of mercy’ by raising it up again and enkindling its flame once more in the household of Roman unity, for the universal triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”[8]
Frère Michel does not cite any sources for this point as we might expect him to if it had come explicitly from Sister Lucia or Father Alonso, the official archivist of all Fatima-related documents for 16 years. It may, then, have been original to Frère Michel. Nevertheless, Father Gruner found much in its support and good reason to expound it to Our Lady’s devotees.
First, Russia’s emergence as the greatest persecutor of the Church in our time is clearly established by Sister Lucia as an element of the Fatima Message. In her famous interview with Fr. Augustin Fuentes in December 1957, she said: “Tell them, Father, that many times the Most Holy Virgin told my cousins Francisco and Jacinta, as well as myself, that many nations will disappear from the face of the earth. She said that Russia will be the instrument of chastisement chosen by Heaven to punish the whole world if we do not beforehand obtain the conversion of that poor nation.”
And in her Memoirs, Lucia relates Our Lady’s description of how that chastisement will take shape: “[God] is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, hunger, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father.” Thus, Russian-rooted Communism has been the ultimate source not just of the wars plaguing the past century but also of the persecutions that have reduced the Church to its present pitiable condition.
Further, the parallel with St. Paul, being converted from the Church’s most virulent persecutor to its greatest Apostle, is forcefully suggested by Heaven itself. “It’s not for nothing,” Father Gruner noted, “that Our Lady gave Her Great Sign in 1938, that the Second World War was about to start, on January 25th, the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.”[9]
Sacred Scripture tells us that Saul had been enraged against the Christian “sect” to the point of madness when Our Lord intervened to stop his murderous frenzy with a miraculous grace producing his sudden and complete conversion. As Our Lord subsequently explained to the prophet Ananias, Saul was a vessel of election whom He had chosen to give witness of Him throughout the world, that all men might be converted from the power of the devil to God.
In the same way, Russia will be miraculously converted by Our Lady when it is properly consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. “And Russia’s conversion to the Catholic Faith,” Father Gruner adds, “will be the instrument whereby the whole world is converted to the Catholic Faith.” Through its Consecration to Her Immaculate Heart, Our Lady will take Russia back from the service of the devil, who has sacrilegiously seized that once-Catholic nation to make it the seat and control-center of the World Socialist Revolution, an organized and militant campaign to drive God out of all levels of human society throughout the world. She will make that nation Her own again, having been authoritatively dedicated to Her service by the Church’s hierarchy, and it will become a powerhouse of evangelization so that the whole world will be converted to the True Faith through it.
This point is evidenced too in that Our Lady of Fatima called for Russia’s Consecration, not merely its exorcism. The first effect of its Consecration will be that of an exorcism, ridding it of the various diabolic errors and ‘isms’ that were imported there, so that Russia, as a nation (both individually and with all of its institutions) will be thoroughly converted. But the main and proper effect of the Consecration will be to ennoble and dedicate that nation for a sacred purpose, setting it apart for the special service of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.[10] When Russia has thus been put into Our Lady’s hands as Her own special instrument and possession, She will use it to overcome (as Father Gruner called them) the demonic and human beasts of the world that are fighting against God.
Finally, Father Gruner saw this special role to which Russia has been chosen by Our Lady depicted in one of the prophetic visions or “dreams” of St. John Bosco.[11] As Father related it, we see in this dream that the Russian armies will invade the West. St. John Bosco saw them marching into Europe, as it were, under a black standard, coming not as friends but as a punishment of God upon the guilty nations of the world. But while they are in France, their standard will turn from black to white. That is the moment when Russia will be consecrated and then miraculously converted by Our Lady. At that point, the Russian armies will stay in France and Western Europe, no longer as enemies but to defend Europe from invaders from the South. St. John Bosco thus summarized his dream, “Salvation is from the North; danger is from the South” (meaning the converted Russians will save Europe by defeating the Islamic hordes).[12]
Every nation today stands in need of conversion, as is clear from the prayers that Our Lord taught to Lucia at Rianjo, Spain, which implore the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of the whole world. That Russia has been specially chosen by God and singled out for consecration is not a condemnation but rather an honor indicating the high purpose to which God has destined that nation in Our Lady’s service. Father Gruner rightly understood that Russia’s Consecration will fit and enable it to carry out that instrumental role in the coming triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Cf. Lenin, Sur la grande révolution socialiste d’Octobre, 1917-1977, pp. 15, 34; cited in Frère Michel, The Whole Truth about Fatima, vol. II, p. 459.
[2] TWTAF, loc. cit.
[3] Op. cit., p. 461.
[4] Note that Our Lady’s words continue to apply, even to the present day. Pope John Paul II’s act of March 25, 1984 was merely a renewal of Pius XII’s October 31, 1942 consecration of the world, whereas Sister Lucia repeatedly insisted that Russia must “appear clearly as the only object of the Consecration” because God wants “the Consecration of Russia, and only Russia, without any addition.” Similarly, Francis’ act of March 25, 2022 was a consecration of the presider himself first of all, referred to in the plural, along with the whole Church and all of humanity, to which he added a special mention of Russia and Ukraine, and finally even the future, the needs and expectations and anxieties and hopes of everyone in the world:
“Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the Church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. The “Fiat” that arose from your heart opened the doors of history to the Prince of Peace. We trust that, through your heart, peace will dawn once more. To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.”
Also lacking to this were the participation of all of the Catholic bishops of the world and the Pope’s formal order for their participation, making it a public act of obedience on their part. Potentially worst of all, however, was the inclusion of an invocation to the “tierra del Cielo” – an ambiguous expression sometimes associated with the worship of the demon Pachamama.
[5] Reported in the Italian bishops’ publication, Il pellegrinaggio delle meraviglie, 1960, p. 440. Cf. Frère Michel, The Whole Truth About Fatima, vol. III, p. 327.
[6] Volume II, beginning on page 441.
[7] Op. cit., vol. II, p. 472.
[8] Ibid., pp. 478-479. Father Gruner explains this theme to a much greater extent than does Frère Michel, but it may be worthwhile here to stress the latter’s testimony to the fact. Internet trollers and Catholic bloggers have attacked Father Gruner on this point, claiming that it is a dangerous error extraneous to the Message of Fatima. Such an erroneous perspective fails to take into account what the term “consecration” means. Certainly, in its present unconsecrated state, Russia cannot be an instrument of salvation, but that will dramatically change once it is properly consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Heaven commands.
[9] 2010 Rome Conference Speech, “The Present Need for the Consecration of Russia,” 41:02. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1k5-JXtNQQ&t=2651s
[10] “Consecrate” is defined as separating a thing or person(s) from a common and profane use to a sacred one, or dedicating a person or thing to the service of God. If Russia is indeed consecrated and belongs to Our Lady, then of course She will use it as an instrument for good.
[11] That of January 5th, 1870, in which Russian soldiers are seen to be occupying France. Since this hasn’t happened since 1814 in the Napoleonic Wars, this prophecy must still regard a future event.
[12] Cf. 2008 India Conference Speech “Fatima Message Imposes an Obligation on the Church,” 46:10. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXqq5XG7Jp4