Father Christopher Zugger

Blagoveshchensk is a town in Russia’s Siberia. It was dedicated to the Good News of the Annunciation, and its first Orthodox parish was dedicated to this feast day. In 1910 a Catholic church was dedicated under the same title. In 1932 that church was closed, and all of the Orthodox churches and the Annunciation Catholic church were destroyed; only the Catholic Transfiguration church survived but it was also closed. In 1937 Russia was engulfed in the Great Purge, or Great Terror, of Stalin, with millions being arrested on false charges. A pregnant Catholic woman was faced with the arrest of her husband, and she knew that since she was in the category of “wife of an enemy of the people” she would be next. In despair, she arranged for an abortion, since she knew the conditions of a Soviet prison would be harsh on her. As she went to the clinic, she realized the date – it was March 25^th, the feast of the annunciation, this feast day, and she realized that she could not possibly kill her baby on the feast of which the Christ Child became incarnate in the womb of Mary. She gave birth to a baby boy, and to her surprise, was never arrested, which she attributed to the intercession of our Lady. She baptized her son all alone, and raised him in the faith as best she could. In 1994, her son heard that there were Catholic priests far away in Vladivostok, and he became the founder of the new Catholic parish under their direction. The boy who should  have died in 1937 was now a missionary.

God can do whatever He wants, and overturn evil. The incarnation of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary takes place as a fulfillment of the promise made to our physical ancestors Adam and Eve, and to our spiritual ancestors the Jewish patriarchs from Noah to Zechariah, that a messiah would come to build the new Israel, the new people of God, and reopen the gates of heaven to the souls of all those waiting to enter into God’s presence.

Pope Francis chose today to fulfill the request of the bishops of Ukraine to consecrate both Russia and Ukraine to the intercession of the most pure heart of Mary, the Immaculate Heart. In 1917 the Virgin Mary asked for this consecration at Fatima, where she predicted that otherwise Russia would spread its errors throughout the world. It is sad that only in 1984 did Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last surviving visionary of Fatima, write that the consecration was done correctly, by St. John Paul II on this day, in conjunction with all the Catholic bishops of the world. But in 1989 as we all know, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and in 1991 the USSR itself ended, opening the door for men like our pastor to serve God publicly in the Byzantine Catholic Church.

One of the main themes of Fatima, that is too often forgotten in the debates about the prophecies regarding the horrors of hell, the second world war, and the spread of communism, and the  martyrdom of many and attack on the pope, is the need for penance. Over and over, Mary called for people to pray for the conversion not just of Russia, but of sinners; she called for repentance against sins of blasphemy and especially purity, something we see all around us today, and the need for prayer to save souls from the fires of hell. The pope today put the consecration in the context of both Fatima and penance. The ceremony was at the end of a Lenten penance service, in which he went to confession and many of the 5,000 people attending did the same with him or one of over 100 priests in Saint Peter’s basilica. The image of Mary – out of all of the possible Marian images stored in Vatican City and Rome – was the pilgrim virgin of Fatima.

War is unnecessary, and this war especially is unnecessary. War is dangerous, particularly when we remember that Russia has nuclear and chemical weapons and that Putin is himself already guilty of who knows how many crimes as a KGB agent as well as president of Russia. The devil himself must rejoice at the hatred that is being unleashed by this war and the horrors inflicted upon tens of thousands of innocent citizens of Ukraine.

In 1937 that pregnant woman had no hope of seeing her husband, of avoiding prison, of raising her baby, of ever seeing a Catholic church reopen in Blagoveshchensk. But her own child became the agent of the parish’s restoration, and countless souls have received the sacraments in that region of Siberia in the last 28 years as a result. None of that was foreseeable on this day in 1937, but she trusted in Mary’s protection, and God acted. In 1984 the Soviet Union was expected to last for decades more, and billboards across communist-ruled Europe proclaimed socialism forever. Now it’s gone.

Who knows how this war will go? Who knows how long Putin will be around? We do know that God keeps his promises. The pope pointed out that the world has forgotten the horrors of the twentieth century, and in his sermon, he pointed out that the consecration is not a magic formula, but a “call to pray for peace even as bombs are destroying the homes of many of our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.” As Christians we believe in the power of prayer, and the reality that God will keep his promises. As Catholics we trust in the ability of the Virgin Mary to pray for us in heaven, and to stand before the throne of God to intercede for special graces for us. The messiah became incarnate in her womb on this day over 2,000 years ago, and his words of peace and his call to follow him remain just a important now as they did when he was alive on earth. Through the prayers of Our Lady, may peace and just be restored in Ukraine,  may we reject the temptations of this fallen world and may our hearts be turned to her divine Son tonight, and all the nights of our lives. Christ is among us.