Vancouver Catholics uniting with Pope’s consecration with novena, Holy Rosary Cathedral Mass

When Pope Francis consecrates Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary next Friday, the prayers of Vancouver’s faithful will be with him.

Archbishop J. Michael will celebrate Mass on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, “uniting the people of God in the Archdiocese of Vancouver with the Holy Father in the consecration,” he said Thursday.

The Mass will be at 12:10 p.m. at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

Announcing the Mass the archbishop said, “May this consecration bring the grace of peace to all people suffering the devastating effects of war.”

Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential celebration that he will preside over at 5 p.m. Rome time, 9 a.m. Vancouver time, Friday, March 25, in St Peter’s Basilica. The ceremony will be livestreamed.

Archbishop Miller is also asking parishes to hold a public prayer service over the next several weeks of Lent for the intention of peace in Ukraine. A memo to priests said the service “can be in the form of a Holy Hour, praying the Holy Rosary, or Stations of the Cross. An alternative suggestion is that a day of fasting can be offered on the day of the prayer service, or any day of the week.”

In preparation for the Pope’s consecration, the archbishop and Canada’s Catholic bishops are also inviting the faithful and all people of good will to join in a novena starting March 17 for peace and the people of Ukraine.

In a statement, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said, “Pope Francis wishes to place the people of Ukraine and Russia under the protection of Mary, the Mother of God, with a special liturgical act. To this end, he will consecrate the two countries to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at a penitential celebration.”

The consecration is being well received by the Catholic bishops in Ukraine and by the Russian bishops, said the CCCB, adding Ukrainian Catholic leaders are preparing with the novena and “they hope that all Catholic faithful from around the world will join them.”

The Canadian bishops said, “In view of this appeal, the Catholic Bishops of Canada, united with the Holy Father, invite their faithful and all people of good will to participate in the novena with the following prayer:

God of реасе and justice,
we pray for the реорlе of Ukraine today.
We pray for реaсе and the laying down of weapons.
We pray for аll those who fear for tomorrow,
that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them.
We pray for those with power over war or реасе,
for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions.
Above аll, we pray for аll your precious children, at-risk and in fear,
that you would hold and protect them.
We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Реасе.
Amen.

The novena was initiated by Catholics in Ukraine and first requested by the Latin-rite archbishop of Lviv, Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki. The date of the consecration is historically significant, as St. John Paul II consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984.

The novena will conclude on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, when Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary at the Vatican.

It was Ukrainian Catholic leaders who urged Pope Francis to take the dramatic step of consecrating both Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Archbishop Mokrzycki said, “For this (consecration) ceremony we want to prepare our people with a novena that will start on March 17.” He added, “We are calling all Christians in Ukraine to join this novena, and we would be very grateful if the whole Church around the world would join us in prayer for this intention.”

Archbishop Mokrzycki appeared to try to carefully navigate around the decades-long controversy over the validity of St. Pope John Paul II’s 1987 consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, saying he believed it was done properly but that it would be beneficial to repeat in order to secure peace again, after the latest outbreak of war.

In a conversation with Catholic News Agency — and another interview he gave earlier in the day to a Ukrainian journalist working for St. Rita Radio, an EWTN radio affiliate in Norway — Archbishop Mokrzycki shed light on what led to Pope Francis’ surprising decision, which is closely linked to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917.

“During this painful and difficult situation of war, we continued to pray, to celebrate the Holy Mass, to adore the Holy Sacrament, to fast and to offer our sufferings requesting God’s mercy. We were joined by the whole world in this, but we see that the war continues,” Archbishop Mokrzycki told CNA in a telephone interview, speaking in Italian.

“So we recalled Our Lady of Fatima, who in 1917 said that the end of the war would come if the Holy Father and the bishops consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart, offer the first Saturdays of every month and pray the Holy Rosary. So we requested the Holy Father to fulfill that request once again,” he explained.

“This was our desire, this was the voice of all the Ukrainian people,” Archbishop Mokrzycki said in his interview with St. Rita Radio. “We as Latin rite bishops, in our bishops’ conference, we went to the Holy Father, we addressed him a letter with this cry because we still have the hope that this war may end soon.”

“We believe that this act will be listened to by Our Lady and she will intercede before God for peace in Ukraine,” he told CNA.

“Someone was telling me that Pope John Paul II had already entrusted Russia and the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and this is true,” he said.

“But Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 said that the consecration would be followed by a time of peace. That time of peace is over now, so we need to repeat the act of consecration of Russia and Ukraine,” he said.

“All the Catholic bishops in Ukraine, both from the Latin rite and Greek Catholics, will join the Holy Father in this act of consecration, celebrating it at the same time in our cathedrals and churches. And we are hopeful that we will be joined by many of our brother bishops around the world,” the archbishop said.

A Catholic archbishop in Moscow has welcomed “with great joy and gratitude” the consecration.

Speaking via telephone from a meeting in Siberia of the Catholic bishops’ conference of Russia, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi expressed hope in the power of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercessory prayer to “stop the bloodshed.”

“Fatima has a special bond, at least as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, with Russia and also with every conflict that takes place in the world,” the Italian-born archbishop said, according to the Italian bishops’ news agency, SIR.

He added: “Certainly the symbolic meaning of this consecration comes from the fact that at this moment there is, unfortunately, an open conflict in Ukraine and what is asked first of all is that we can stop the bloodshed.”

Archbishop Pezzi has led the Archdiocese of the Mother of God at Moscow for the past 14 years and was granted Russian citizenship in 2011.

On the same day, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski will also preside at an act of consecration in Fatima, Portugal. Cardinal Krajewski was one of two papal envoys sent to Ukraine last week in an expression of the Pope’s concern for the country’s besieged population.

A special statue of Our Lady of Fatima has arrived in Ukraine, ahead of Pope Francis’ consecration.

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin in Lviv announced on Facebook Wednesday, “The Center of the Shrine of Fatima (Portugal) provides us with an official copy of the Statue of the Mother of God of Fatima, to ask God for protection and peace in Ukraine and the world in her presence.” 

The church will house the statue from March 17 to April 15, the post read. After departing from Portugal, the statue visited Krakow, Poland, before continuing to Lviv.

The statue comes at the request of Archbishop Ihor Vozniak of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. It is one of 13 official copies of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima that travel worldwide. Carved in 1920, sculptor José Ferreira Tedin created the original statue with the help of Sister Lucia, one of the three children at the Marian apparitions in Fatima in 1917.

With Catholic News Agency files