There is a very special place in the Immaculate Heart of Mary for this country we call Russia. Imagine it, with her own Immaculate lips she mentioned this country by name in Her apparitions in Fatima and even in later apparitions to Sr. Lucy.

Has our Lady ever mentioned a country by name in one of her apparitions? Even if so, perhaps not so many times as she spoke the word “Russia”. That is truly amazing. Russia is very special to her. Therefore, we who love this Heavenly Queen must also love what she loves. We must be attentive to what she is attentive to. If she is attentive to Russia (and in fact we know that she is, and that she wants the Pope and all the bishops of the world to be attentive to Russia) then we also MUST be attentive to Russia.

What that means is that we need to help this country by whatever means we have. Our Lady needs our help! She asks for our help! Of course the Consecration is the most important thing that we must pray for regarding the future of Russia. Nevertheless, consider how many years the Catholic Church tried and tried to enter into this nation in order to spiritually help it, but unfortunately it was always unsuccessful. This country has been cut off and isolated from the life-giving grace of the One True Church — outside of which there is no salvation — for hundreds and hundreds of years. The Catholic faith has not been able to take root there.

Finally, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the “opening up” of Russia to the West, and the prayers and sacrifices of people faithful to the message of Fatima, we now have a better chance to concretely and spiritually help this country which our Lady loves so dearly. This is exactly what Father Gruner’s Fatima Centre has recently and quite effectively done. The prayers, efforts and sacrifices of The Fatima Centre and all those who participated in the 2017 conference in Moscow, were outstanding and tremendously edifying to say the least. How beautiful it was to see Americans, Canadians, Russians, Czechs and Swiss come together for the love of Our Lady of Fatima and for Russia! What a blessing for the 100th anniversary of Fatima!

We must be very grateful to The Fatima Centre for this event, but especially and sincerely we need to thank Our Lady of Fatima for helping us to realize this very special and historic conference. Truly her immaculate and maternal hands helped us every step of the way in order to put this conference together. We must be truly thankful to her. Finally, let us continue to pray and sacrifice for the true and full Consecration of Russia, which is so desperately needed by the world today. However, let us not only speak about the Consecration of Russia theoretically and in some way very far away from Russia.

Sometimes “Russia” can become only kind of a theoretical construct in our mind. No, there are real souls in this vast country who need our prayers and sacrifices! They are hungering and thirsting for the Truth! Let us fulfil our Christian and Catholic duty to actually PRAY for this nation so beloved by the Immaculate Heart of Mary and also for the real people who are struggling to come out of a Communistic and atheistic world. Let us support The Fatima Centre in its missionary endeavours there. We pray for the Consecration of Russia, but do we pray for the souls there? One of the beautiful things about this conference was that it brought Catholics from the West and the East together so closely. Catholics from North America and Europe worked together with actual Russian Catholics in order to spread the message of Fatima, to exchange ideas, and to plan for future activity. What a grace! What a blessing!

Let us not forget to thank all those faithful people who supported this endeavour by their prayers, sacrifices and material support. We sincerely appreciate it. Finally, let us thank Father Gruner and John Vennari for their prayers, for this conference. May they rest in peace.

Father Shane Pezzutti