Catholic bishops worldwide, including in Alabama, joined Pope Francis to offer a special prayer service on Friday asking for help from Mary, mother of Jesus, in ending the Ukraine-Russia war.
“The people of Ukraine and Russia, who venerate you with great love, now turn to you, even as your heart beats with compassion for them and for all those peoples decimated by war, hunger, injustice and poverty,” Pope Francis said during the service in Rome, according to Vatican News. “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.”
Pope Francis led the “Act of Consecration of Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” in a service at St. Peter’s Basilica at the end of a Lenten penitential service. March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation, which commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary.
“If we want the world to change, then first our hearts must change,” Pope Francis said.
“This is no magic formula but a spiritual act,” the pope said. “It is an act of complete trust on the part of children who, amid the tribulation of this cruel and senseless war that threatens our world, turn to their Mother, reposing all their fears and pain in her heart and abandoning themselves to her.”
Catholic Bishops held concurrent prayer services throughout the world.
At the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Bishop Steven Raica led the service for the Diocese of Alabama.
“This is an act of deepest trust and devotion of the people to Mary as their mother in faith, the Mother of the Church,” Archdiocese of Moscow Vicar General Kirill Gorbunov told Vatican News. “I believe that this Act shows the deepest hope that people have. It is not a magic act that will by some miracle transform the situation, but we believe that it can change people’s hearts to seek a peaceful solution for this tragedy.”
The prayer was a reference to the children who had visions of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal, beginning in May 1917, about six months before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, in which the children claimed the Virgin Mary asked for prayer for Russia.
“Or course, this Act of Consecration is very closely tied with the Fatima private revelation of Our Lady, and the Russian Orthodox Church is officially quite suspicious toward this Fatima revelation, especially about the conversion of Russia,” Gorbunov said. “But we believe many believers will understand that this Act on the part of the Catholic Church is not to say that we doubt the authenticity of faith of other Christians and other believers in our homeland. Rather, we actually invite other people to be with us in this moment. And I hope that they will understand.”