March 25 is a special date in connection with Fatima. Forty years ago, in 1984, on this same day, Saint Pope John Paul II, in union with all the bishops, consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the presence of the original statue of Our Lady of Fatima, in St. Peter’s Square, Rome.

This solemn act was to fulfil the request made by Our Lady during the Fatima apparitions and, more explicitly during her apparition to Sister Lucia in Tuy, Spain, in 1929, where She said:  “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father to make, in union with all the bishops of the world, the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.”

When the consecration was finally made, Sister Lucia personally confirmed that such solemn and universal act of consecration corresponded to what Our Lady wanted: “Yes it has been done just as Our Lady asked” she wrote. 

To make memory of this solemn act of consecration of 1984 and of the consecration of Russia and Ukraine that Pope Francis made on 25 March 2022, should help to renew our faith, hope and trust in God and Our Lady, who promised at Fatima that “in the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph” (…) “and a period of peace will be granted to the world”. The Blessed Virgin Mary counts on us, on our conversion and consecration to God, to build peace in the world.