Has the Consecration of Russia Been Done?

On 13 July 1917, Our Lady told the Children of Fatima,

You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, 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, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

The key passage I want to look at here is, 'If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.'

There are many people who argue that the requested Consecration has been made, usually pointing to John Paul II's Consecration of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation, 1984. That Consecration can be read here.

If you read it carefully, you will realise that Russia is never mentioned. Those who argue that this is THE Consecration point to the phrase, 'Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting', saying that this consecrated Russia. How they can twist the Pope's statement to mean that is beyond me. He specifically asks Our Lady to 'enlighten' an unnamed people, tho' we can assume that he meant the peoples of Russia, whose consecration she is awaiting! In other words, this is not that consecration, but the Pope is aware that She wants and is waiting for it.

However, semantics aside, what have been the fruits of that Consecration? Let's take Our Lady's promises point by point. The first, and most often quoted is 'Russia will be converted'.

In the days before to the fall of the Soviet Union, this was always understood to mean that Russia would convert to the Catholic Faith. Since the fall of the Evil Empire, that has been forgotten and we have been told that what it 'really' meant was that communism would fall and Russia would return to Orthodoxy.

Far from converting to Catholicism, Catholics of all Rites Latin and Eastern, amount to only 0.1% of the Russian population.

And, as far as 'returning to Orthodoxy', between 1998 and 2012, the number of Orthodox in Russia dropped from 74,278,513 (50.3%) to 61,350,000 (43.0%) and in the same period, the number of atheists, 'spiritual but not religious', odd religions not otherwise accounted for, and 'nones' have increased from 67,485,647 (45.7%) to 74,500,000 (51.6%). So, after its 'conversion', Russia has gone from having a bare majority of Orthodox to having a minority of Orthodox, outnumbered by non-Christians who do not belong to other recognised religions (Islam, Judaism, non-Orthodox Christianity, etc.).

Also, it is important to remember that even today, the second largest political party in Russia is the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Communism is by no means dead in Russia.

Ignoring the difficult to quantify corruption in Russia, the oligarchs, the Russian 'Mafia', etc., there are couple of other statistics that are interesting if Russia has 'converted'.

First, Russia has the highest abortion rate in the world at 37.4. In other words, for every 1,000 women between 15 to 44, 37.4 had an abortion. (The US rate is 19.6/1,000 women between 15 to 44.)

Second, Russia ranks 4th in the world in terms of alcohol abuse (most of the other top ten countries are also former Soviet Bloc nations).

If this is 'conversion', it's not what most sane people mean by the word!

Her second promise was 'There will be peace'. Those who believe that the Consecration has been done will argue that this has been fulfilled since there has been no World War III. However, Our Lady did not say there would be no world war, she said there would be peace.

As anyone who has read the newspapers, watched or listened to broadcast news, or followed the news on the internet, knows, this could not be further from the truth. Rather than list the dozens of wars since the putative 'Consecration of Russia', I will simply link to Wikipedia where they are listed:

List of wars: 1980–1989
List of wars: 1990–2002
List of wars: 2003–present

If this be peace, may God preserve us from a world with wars and conflict!

If Her requests were not heeded She said, '(S)he (Russia) will spread her errors throughout the world...'

I used to wonder what the 'errors of Russia' were, exactly. It was generally assumed that they were communism as practised after the Bolshevik Revolution, but in July 1917, when Our Lady made the prediction, the Bolsheviks were not in control. The 'soft Marxist' Mensheviks, under Kerensky, formed the Government. However, after thinking about it, I realised that it is immaterial. The soft Marxism of the Mensheviks has become the predominant ideology of almost all Western governments and we are seeing a strong resurgence of Bolshevik style Marxism across the world, from 'Antifa', to the Labour Party in Britain, to the followers of Bernie Sanders in the US.

In other words, the 'errors of Russia' are spreading throughout the world, unchecked.

The prediction regarding the errors of Russia concludes with saying if Her requests are not heeded, it will 'caus(e) wars and persecutions of the Church.' As to the wars, I refer the reader back to the links to Wikipedia supra, but the persecution of the Church is a different matter.

As any reader of this blog knows, the Church is suffering major persecutions in Red China, with the connivance of the Vatican. The growing persecution of Christians in Muslim countries in both Africa and Asia is equally well known. Less well known are the anti-Christian violence perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalists in India and the persecution of Christians in Israel by ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews. Christianity and the Church are undergoing persecution across the world and it has been becoming more severe with each passing year.

So, it is obvious that Russia has not been converted in any normal sense of the word 'conversion,' that there has not been peace, but on the contrary, Our Lady's predictions that Russia would spread her errors throughout the world, that there would be wars, and that the Church would be increasingly persecuted have all become more and more obviously true. 

Whilst I'm sure no one expected instantaneous results from the Consecration if it was, indeed, the consecration requested by Our Lady, it would seem that after more than 35 years there might be some evidence of the conversion of Russia, an increase in peace in the world, a lessening of the spread of blatant Marxism, and a more peaceful existence for the Church, but I can detect no signs of any of these. Indeed, as I have pointed out, the contrary is true.

Therefore there are only two logical conclusions I can draw: Either, 1) Despite all the arguments to the contrary, the Consecration has not been done as Our Lady requested in 1917 or, 2) It has been done, but Our Lady had no idea what she was talking about and was just blowing smoke. Which is more likely?

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us and that the Consecration you requested will be done!