A Call for 12 Million Rosaries Crusade, Lent 2011 - Pentecost 2012
Bishop Bernard Fellay, S.S.P.X., has issued an important request to all the Faithful, for a Rosary Crusade, "Starting on Easter of this year until Pentecost of 2012", for the Consecration of Russia as requested by Our Lady at Fatima in 1917, which is the condition laid down for the fulfilment of her promise: "In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and She will be converted; and God will grant a period of peace to the world." Sr Lucy of Fatima explained very clearly the conditions for this consecration: it is to be a public act of Reparation for the sins of mankind that have allowed Russia to "spread her errors round the world" fomenting wars and persecutions: The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated." When Lucy was asked would it really happen, she replied firmly "It will happen, but it will be late". The consecration must be carried out by all the bishops of the World, in union with the Pope, in their own dioceses, on the same day. This is partly an act of Penance by the Church, which failed to merit the Graces that would have averted the wars and Revolutions of the Twentieth Century. It will take courage to make such a public gesture, which would make of the Church a laughing-stock of the world if nothing happens. Russia is to be mentioned by name, firstly because the atheistic Marxist Revolution began from there, and secondly so that, when she does convert to the Catholic Church in union with the Successor of Peter, it will be a public demonstration of the efficacy of recourse to the Immaculate Heart.
Bishop Fellay writes:–
We do not have the right to doubt that our prayers will be answered, according to the infallible arrangements of Divine Providence. Let us trust in the good Lord. Nevertheless, the situation of the Church and of the world prompts us to ask you insistently not to stop this movement of prayer for the good of the Church and of the world, for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The intensity of the crisis, the multiplication of all sorts of misfortunes that strike or threaten humanity, demands on our part a corresponding attitude: “We ought always to pray and not to faint.” “Oportet semper orare et numquam deficere” (Luke 18:1).
Therefore it seems to us urgent and more than opportune, given the redoubled intensity of the evils that are swamping the Holy Church, to launch once more a Rosary Crusade, a campaign of prayer and penance. Starting on Easter of this year until Pentecost of 2012, we invite you to join all your efforts, all your strength, so as to make a new spiritual bouquet, a new garland of these roses that are so pleasing to Our Lady, to beg her to intercede on behalf of her children with her divine Son and the Almighty Father. Confusion is only increasing among souls; they are being handed over to the ravaging wolves even in the sheepfold. The trial is so difficult that even the elect would be lost if it were not shortened. The few reassuring developments of the past few years are not enough to allow us to say that things have really changed fundamentally. They give us great hopes for the future, but like the light that one perceives while still in the depths of the tunnel. And so with all our hearts let us ask our Heavenly Mother to intervene so that this terrible trial may be cut short, that the Modernist cape muffling the Church—at least since Vatican II—may be torn in two, and that the Authorities may perform their salvific duties for souls, that the Church may regain her spiritual splendor and beauty, that souls throughout the world may hear the Good News that converts, receive the Sacraments that save, and find the one sheepfold. Ah! How we would love to be able to use less dramatic language, but it would be a lie and culpable negligence on our part to soothe you by letting you hope that things will improve by themselves.
We are counting on your generosity to collect once more a bouquet of at least twelve million rosaries for the intention that the Church may be delivered from the evils that oppress her or threaten her in the near future, that Russia may be consecrated and that the Triumph of the Immaculata may come soon.
So that our prayers may be even more efficacious and each one may derive a greater benefit from them, we wish to conclude by recalling that when one recites the Rosary, the most important thing is not the number of Hail Mary’s, but rather the way in which one prays them. The risk of monotony or distraction can be fought effectively by praying the Rosary according to the instructions of Mary herself: while counting off the Rosary beads, it is a matter of meditating on the scenes from the life of Our Lord and of His Holy Mother and the mysteries that they present. The most important thing is this contact with the life of our Savior, which is established when one thinks lovingly about the events announced with each decade, the “mysteries” of the Rosary. The decades of Hail Mary’s become like background music accompanying and sustaining this powerful, gentle contact with God, with Our Lord and Our Lady. Sister Lucy of Fatima could say, following the popes, that God has willed to confer a very special power on this prayer, so that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by this magnificent devotion. We venture to insist on prayer within the family, which daily gives proof of its efficacy in protecting children and young people from the temptations and appalling dangers of the modern world, which protects family unity in the midst of so many perils that threaten it. Let us not allow ourselves to become discouraged by the apparent silence of Divine Providence after our last crusade. Is it not so that God love it when we prove to Him, in important matters, that we know how to appreciate the true value of what we ask for and that we are ready to pay the price?
As we are about to enter into the Passion of Our Lord, Holy Week and the glorious Resurrection of our Savior, we ask Our Lady to deign to bless your generosity, to take you under her kindly protection and to answer your persevering prayers.
Menzingen, Passion Sunday +Bernard Fellay, Superior General