A powerful antidote to secularism

Dear Editor, After reading Archbishop Michael Neary’s gloomy conclusion that the Church is losing the battle with secularism (IC 13/11/2014), it was heartening to read David Quinn’s reminder to us, in the same edition, of the successful  role of the Church in the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The whirlwind of totally unpredicted political changes in the Eastern bloc began almost immediately after Pope St John Paul II knelt down in St Peter’s Square on March 25, 1984, before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima, and consecrated the world, which of course included Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This was in response to the message of Fatima which promised that this action would lead to the conversion of Russia.

Within a year Mikhail Gorbachev came to power. He promised wide-ranging political reforms including freedom of religion. He met Pope John Paul II in 1989. But he was moving too far, too fast for some hard-line communists who attempted a coup d’état on August 19, 1991. The coup failed. It was all over by August 22. Are these dates just a coincidence, or a sign from God? August 19 is the feast day of St John Eudes, the saint most closely connected with devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and August 22 was the original feast day of the Immaculate Heart, introduced by Pope Pius XII in 1944, in response to Fatima. The failed coup resulted within a few months in the abolition of the Communist Party, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The role of Fatima in the conversion of Russia may be disputed, but  the message and miracle of Fatima have the potential to be a powerful antidote to secularism.

Yours etc.,

Lauri Duffy,  

Howth,  Dublin 13.