My one-time parishioner in Australia and great friend Charles Morton, an attorney, a filmmaker, a father of ten, has made it a lifetime mission to promote consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In his determination and by Divine Providence he has spoken to key people through the years. In this interview with John-Henry he drops a few now-we-know bombs and also has a great path forward with some piercingly simple insights.
Charles Morton & John-Henry Westen: Fatima consecration to Immaculate Heart of Mary. Never before heard information.
Filed under Fatima, Immaculate Conception
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Love it! I’m writing to the Bishop now!
WOW–Praying for Pope Francis to consecrate Russia to The Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This is a fascinating interview that allows us a glimpse of the complexities (that most of us have no clue) involved with the Consecration of Russia to Mary. Thank you for putting the torchlight on this talk within your…(i don’t know how to identify you and your writings! I refuse to call this your blog, because that’s such a base word. DUH! it’s your Flowers for the Immaculate! 🙂
Why have we not followed the orders of the greatest Queen in history?
Do the Consecration as Our Lady asked, What happens next is up to Heaven.
I acknowledge Mr Morton’s well studied knowledge of Fatima and respect his sincerity but respectfully differ with some of the interpretations he puts forward in the video above.
1) It cannot be that Sister Lucia’s spiritual director was concerned by what she might say if asked about the consecration; more likely he did not want her badgered on the matter yet again. Sister had been harassed for years and the truth misrepresented by Father Gruner and others intent on finding evidence that the required consecration was not done. But it was done and should not be denied because the truth matters. When speaking with Church authorities and asked “If the consecration made by Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984 … accomplished the conditions for the consecration of Russia according to the request of Our Lady in Tuy on June 13 of 1929?” Sister Lucia replied, “Yes, it was accomplished and since then I have said that it was made”. (Source: Sister’s letter to Father Robert J. Fox)https://www.catholicdoors.com/faq/qu26b.htm
2) It is hardly surprising should Pope John Paul II have initially wondered if – wanted to check with his cardinals that – the 1984 consecration had been all that it should be; his previous attempts (1982 and 1983) were not, nor were those of Pope Pius XII (1942 and 1952). By 1984 the matter was urgent and the hour late, 55 years having elapsed since 1929 when Our Lady had declared, “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.” And Our Lord had lamented to Sister Lucia, “They did not wish to heed my request!… Like the King of France, they will repent and do it, but it will be late. Russia will have already spread her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church: the Holy Father will have much to suffer”.https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/apparitions/fatima/MemoriasI_en.pdf p.198
3) By 1984 Russia had indeed “spread her errors throughout the world”; It therefore makes sense that the 1984 consecration included “all individuals and peoples of the world”. True, the word “Russia” was not used but did it have to be spelt out? Surely no-one can doubt God knows (a) that the Russian populace are among the “individuals and peoples of the world” and (b) of whom Pope John Paul II was speaking when he said, “In a special way we entrust and consecrate to you those individuals and nations which particularly need to be thus entrusted and consecrated … Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting”.https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/papal-consecrations-to-the-immaculate-heart-7140
Consequently, although prudence dictated this more cautious way of identifying Russia given Cold War tensions, it cannot be supposed to have nullified the consecration. Moreover, if one does hold to the idea that Russia was not consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary by Pope John Paul II in 1984, then one is calling Sr Lucia a liar. There is no evidence that she ever told a lie in her life but every reason to believe she would never do so; one only has to look at her childhood to see how much she suffered rather than tell a lie.
Lucia was the youngest of six children. Her parents and siblings doted upon her and their neighbours treated her well; that is, until the apparitions began. In 1915 Lucia was 8 years old and in the company of three other girls when they saw an angel in the distance but didn’t know what “it” was. Being so young, they described what they saw rather poorly resulting in Lucia’s mother calling the story “childish nonsense” and her sisters and others making fun of her. Lucia would later comment, “I felt these contemptuous words and gestures very keenly as up to now I had been used to nothing but caresses”. Still, such hurt to her young heart was mild by comparison – a “gentle” introduction – to that which lay ahead.
1916 brought 9 year old Lucia and her younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta, face to face with the angel. One of the things he said to them was to “accept and bear with submission the suffering which the Lord will send you”. And much suffering there would be because maintaining the truth would cost all three children dearly.
From the moment she heard of Our Lady’s appearance to her daughter, niece and nephew in 1917, Lucia’s mother could not believe it and spared neither threats nor beatings to make 10 year old Lucia confess to lying about it. As Lucia explained, “I was overwhelmed with bitterness. I could see that my mother was deeply distressed, and that she wanted at all costs to compel me, as she put it, to admit that I had lied. I wanted so much to do as she wished, but the only way I could do so was to tell a lie. From the cradle, she had instilled into her children a great horror of Iying, and she used to chastise severely any one of us who told an untruth … My sisters sided with my mother, and all around me the atmosphere was one of utter scorn and contempt”. Some neighbours followed suit, verbally insulting Lucia, even going so far at times as to beat her as she passed by.
Telling the truth also meant that the children’s lives would never be their own again. Wave after wave of strangers came to Fatima seeking them out, the curious to question and those with troubles looking for help. They descended upon the three children wherever they could be found, even invading the privacy of their homes. Such oft-repeated interruptions to their lives were not only wearying but also disrupting of each household’s daily routines, so much so that the children could no longer tend their flocks which were then sold off and Lucia, the eldest seer, could do nought but take the blame. Additionally, pilgrims invaded the fields as they flocked to the Cova da Iria, land owned by Lucia’s family where Our Lady appeared, they and their horses churning up the ground and treading underfoot not only grazing pasture but also food grown by Lucia’s family meant for their table, bringing down upon Lucia still more punishment. “You, now,” Lucia’s mother said to her, “when you want something to eat, go and ask the Lady for it!” And her sisters joined in, “Yes, you can have what grows in the Cova da Iria!” Lucia later recalled: “These remarks cut me to the heart, so much so that I hardly dared to take a piece of bread to eat.”
The apparitions also attracted the ire of the masonic and atheistic government; such men didn’t want an uptick in Marian devotion. Wishing to discredit the apparitions they, too, persecuted Lucia. Taken to Ourem twice in 1917, the first time (11th August) by her father, Lucia was interrogated and threatened with death; the second time (13th August) she was arrested with Francisco and Jacinta, temporarily imprisoned and told she and her cousins were to be “fried alive”. When terrifying the children didn’t bring compliance they were released. Later (13th May, 1920), when cavalrymen were trying to stop pilgrimage to the Cova da Iria, Lucia was taken into the custody of two officers, paraded through the streets and threatened with death before they finally let her go.
Through it all Lucia refused to lie, even when it seemed that her determination in this regard was making her mother deathly ill, her eldest sister accusing, “Mother is going to die of grief because of all the trouble you’ve given her!” However, her mother survived but her father, the only one at home who had defended her, soon died (1919) as did Francisco, Jacinta following in 1920, leaving Lucia feeling so very alone on this earth; but she had not lost everything yet for she still enjoyed the familiarity of home and countryside where she grew up, yet the truth she protected so well would require the loss of that as well. In 1921 at 2 am in the morning, 14 year year old Lucia was quietly spirited out of Fatima bound for the school of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy in Porto. With no expectation of ever returning home, Lucia recorded: “The train moved out, and with it went my poor heart plunged in an ocean of loneliness and filled with memories that I could never forget”. From school, she would join the Sisters of Saint Dorothy as a postulant at their convent in Pontevedra, Spain.https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/apparitions/fatima/MemoriasI_en.pdf pp. 48-49, 52-53, 54-55, 57, 75-77, 78-80, 83-84, 88, 89-91, 92, 94, 95, 98, 106-8, 109-110, 113, 116-117, 161-162, 170-172.
How anyone could believe that Sister Lucia would lie about anything, especially spiritual matters on which the fate of the world hung, is beyond me!
Furthermore, I wonder if Mr Morton would have been able to enter Russia if the consecration had not already been made, for surely that 1984 consecration was what brought about the fall of the USSR. Consider the following, It was
* on 8th December 1991, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, when the leaders of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine declared the end of the Soviet Union (the Belovezh Accords).
* 12th December 1991, Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Woman of the Apocalypse), when these accords were ratified on behalf of Russia
* Christmas Day 1991, when the Communist flag flying over the Kremlin was taken down
That the fall of Communist Russia should fall on such significant feast days is hard to ignore. A message from Heaven perhaps? I think so; similar has happened before. I wasn’t born until 1950 but my parents told me of their experience on 15th August 1945, Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven. My Father was on leave (he was a soldier in the Army) and had called on his fiancé (my future mother) and taken her to Mass. The church was full because, although a weekday, it was a holy day of of obligation. During Mass Father received a message that he joyously passed on to the congregation: Emperor Hirohito had announced the surrender of Japan – WWII had come to an end! What joyous thanksgiving followed. Celebration in the streets followed celebration of the Mass. There was no denying, for Catholics at least, that the intercession of our Blessed Mother had brought victory. Our Lady, under the title “Help of Christians”, is patroness of Australia. The Japanese military were on our doorstep and Catholics here were praying for Our Blessed Mother to intercede for us with her Son to put an end to the Japanese advance – and she did! Likewise, she obtained the end of the USSR following the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.
4) Confusingly, after earlier in the interview casting doubts on the validity of Pope John Paul’s 1984 consecration of Russia (and all the world then infected with Russia’s errors), Mr Morton then does an about-face later in the interview and credits the fall of the Soviet Union to that consecration. One can’t have it both ways! Either Pope John Paul II’s 1984 consecration “accomplished the conditions for the consecration of Russia according to the request of Our Lady in Tuy on June 13 of 1929” or it did not. If it did, then a repeat will not do better so why call for it? The problem is not with the consecration that has truly been done but with the timing – it was late – and no amount of future repeat-consecrations can change that. Because it was late, Russia had already “spread her errors throughout the world” and overcoming that will take awhile; the fall of the USSR was just the start. Moreover, it is too often forgotten that more than the consecration was required for the conversion of Russia.
5) At Fatima on 13th July 1917, Our Lady said, “… I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace …”. And of course she did come as she said she would.
* 10th December 1925, Our Lady appeared to Lucia at Pontevedra in Galicia, Spain where she was a postulant. The Child Jesus was with her and said, “Have compassion on the Heart of your most holy Mother, covered with thorns, with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to make an act of reparation to remove them.” Our Lady showed Lucia her heart encircled with thorns and asked that a Communion of Reparation be made on the 1st Saturday of 5 consecutive months, and she set out how one goes about this: “confess, receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for fifteen minutes while meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me.”
* 13th June 1929, Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia while making a Holy Hour in the convent’s chapel at Tuy in Galicia, Spain. “Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a cross of light … Under the left arm of the cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: “Grace and Mercy” (See 2nd picture in Father’s 2022-03-08 post “Malachi Brendan Martin ,,,”). Our then Lady said, “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means. There are so many souls whom the Justice of God condemns for sins committed against me, that I have come to ask reparation: sacrifice yourself for this intention and pray.”https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/apparitions/fatima/MemoriasI_en.pdf pp. 124, 194, 197-198
The consecration requested at Tuy has been done but what about the Five 1st Saturdays; both are required for the conversion of Russia and the coming of peace. I dare say those devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary do their best to make the 1st Saturdays year round when they can, but what portion of the world are devoted to her? I think it would be best not to agitate for repeat consecrations but to call on Catholics worldwide – yes, and the Orthodox too – to make the five 1st Saturdays with the intention of making reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
[There is more I would like to say about Galicia but I am trying to keep this “comment” brief (but of course it is not brief, yet is as brief as I can make it) and so it stays in my unfinished book for now.]
Thank you, mum, for this comment. I am ashamed to say that I have made only one (!) First Saturday out of the five required. So little, so late in my life! Please know that your words have fallen on my hearing ears, and that perhaps I am only one of many who were meant to hear them as a “last chance.” It will be an eternity to wait for the next First Saturday.
007, I too have failed to make all 5 First Saturdays in a row, and now I can’t. I’m glad you still can. Perhaps you will be so kind as to take me with you in prayer when you make all five in a row.
I will, Mum! I assure you, that the Lord and our Lady will know I am there as your representative.
Aussie Mum
When Pope JPII added that unscripted line to his 1984 consecration – “…Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting…” – he did so as testimony that he was not making the consecration as requested by Our Lady. This was later confirmed when a prelate close to the Pope admitted that he had been actively discouraged by other prelates from mentioning Russia for ecumenical reasons. Makes perfect sense to me.
Besides that, when heaven asks for a specific order of consecration, bearing in mind that Our Lord wants the world to recognise the conversion of Russia as solely due to the intercession of His Blessed Mother, and ours, He will not bless so-called consecrations which do not mention the nation to be consecrated and do not include the world’s bishops in union with the Pope, as explicitly ordered. It takes a huge stretch of the imagination, not to mention a lot of sophistry, to try to make a valid consecration of Russia out of that 1984 act of JPII.
At any rate, Russia is not converted to the true (Catholic) religion, apart from which, says the infallible dogma, there is no salvation. In addition, you may wish to check out the work of a certain Fr. Di Noto and his “meter association”. It is Fr. Di Noto’s claim that 99.8% of the internet domains hosting child pornography around the world are Russian in origin.
No, the consecration of Russia as explicitly ordered by Our Lady has NEVER been done. Pope Francis, assuming the bishops of the world comply with his invitation (should have been a command!) to join with him in this solemn act, even though he is adding Ukraine to a solemn act that Our Lady specifically requested for Russia alone, will come closer to heaven’s request than anything JPII or his predecessors ever managed.
Athanasius,
St Pope John Paul II’s intention was to consecrate Russia and his words and actions confirm this, and he did so in union with all the bishops of the world as requested by God through Our Lady to Sister Lucia.
That the Pope also prayed, “Enlighten especially the peoples whose consecration and entrustment by us you are awaiting…” in no way nullifies his consecration of Russia which preceded the request for enlightenment. Surely you can see that Russia would need to be enlightened with the truth in order to convert; that is, to have hearts and minds turned from atheistic Communism back to God.
That Pope John Paul II may have been discouraged by other prelates from using the word “Russia” given the political tensions at the time (USSR and Russian Orthodox Church – v – the generally Christian West) is not a problem. The Pope’s careful choice of words indicating Russia, together with his actions (the statue of Our Lady of Fatima brought from Fatima by its bishop and placed next to the altar, and the consecration being made in union with all the bishops of the world), makes clear that Russia was, indeed, consecrated at that time (1984).https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/papal-consecrations-to-the-immaculate-heart-7140
Re your concern that “Russia is not converted to the true (Catholic) religion”. Do you realise that 86.7% of Russia’s population are Russian Orthodox, one of the separated Eastern Churches? Although not yet returned to communion with Rome, Russia’s Orthodox still participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and partake of the Sacraments because the chain of Apostolic Succession was never broken despite schism. Their hierarchy was under the thumb of Russia’s atheistic Communist government during the Soviet years but with the collapse of the Soviet Union following the 1984 consecration a religious revival has been reported; a return to communion with Rome may well follow but we have to do our part: pray for peace, sacrifice for sinners and make the five 1st Saturdays. The Pope did his part (the consecration) in 1984 but have we done all we can do in response to Our Lady’s requests?
As to Father di Noto, I have never heard of him. Exposing corruption is a good thing; however, I doubt 99.8% of child pornography world-wide is coming out of Russia.
Aussie Mum Hi, your thoughts most welcome. I have to ask 1) where is the period of world peace promised by Our Lady, and 2) did a pope suffer much? His intention is not the issue, but Her words are.
Hello Michael. Sorry for the delay.
The period of world peace is still to come, its delay due to the consecration being done so very late – or so it seems to me. Look what happened to France when it delayed doing as Our Lord instructed concerning His Sacred Heart (see p. 198 footnote, link below).https://www.piercedhearts.org/hearts_jesus_mary/apparitions/fatima/MemoriasI_en.pdf
Our Lady’s words were what informed the 1984 consecration. She did not give a script but simply said: “The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means” (p. 198, link above). The 1984 consecration made by Pope John Paul II did this. Following is a transcript of that consecration with EWTN’s short preamble. I am unable to bold text in a comment box and so have capitalised those words in the consecration that specifically indicate Russia although Russia was already included in the words “all individuals and peoples” .
Transcript
25 March 1984. Pope St. John Paul II in Union with All the Bishops of the World, Consecration of all Individuals and Peoples of the World to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Before the Extraordinary Jubilee year of Redemption’s Mass for Families, with the Statue of Our Lady of Fátima brought from Fátima to Rome for this purpose by the Bishop of Leiria-Fátima next to the main altar, the Holy Father gave an introduction, where he said in part:
“….In remembrance of the ‘Fiat’ uttered by her at the moment of the Annunciation, I will today entrust to her Immaculate Heart—in spiritual union with all the bishops of the world—all individuals and peoples, repeating in substance the act that I made at Fátima on May 13, 1982. …”
ACT OF CONSECRATION
Immediately after the Holy Year Mass for Families:
1. “We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God”.
As we utter the words of this antiphon with which the Church of Christ has prayed for centuries, we find ourselves today before you, Mother, in the Jubilee Year of the Redemption.
We find ourselves united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college, just as by Christ’s wish the Apostles constituted a body and college with Peter.
In the bond of this union, we utter the words of the present Act, in which we wish to include, once more, the Church’s hopes and anxieties for the modern world.
Forty years ago and again ten years later, your servant Pope Pius XII, having before his eyes the painful experiences of the human family, entrusted and consecrated to your Immaculate Heart the whole world, especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and solicitude.
This world of individuals and nations we too have before our eyes today: the world of the second millennium that is drawing to a close, the modern world, our world!
The Church, mindful of the Lord’s words: “Go… and make disciples of all nations… and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:19-20), has, at the Second Vatican Council, given fresh life to her awareness of her mission in this world.
And therefore, O Mother of individuals and peoples, you who know all their sufferings and their hopes, you who have a mother’s awareness of all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, which afflict the modern world, accept the cry which we, moved by the Holy Spirit, address directly to your Heart. Embrace, with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord, this human world of ours, which we entrust and consecrate to you, for we are full of concern for the earthly and eternal destiny of individuals and peoples.
IN A SPECIAL WAY WE ENTRUST AND CONSECRATE TO YOU THOSE INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS WHICH PARTICULARLY NEED TO BE THUS ENTRUSTED AND CONSECRATED.
“We have recourse to your protection, holy Mother of God”: despise not our petitions in our necessities.
2. Behold, as we stand before you, Mother of Christ, before your Immaculate Heart, we desire, together with the whole Church, to unite ourselves with the consecration which, for love of us, your Son made of himself to the Father: “For their sake”, he said, “I consecrate myself that they also may be consecrated in the truth” (Jn 17:19). We wish to unite ourselves with our Redeemer in this his consecration for the world and for the human race, which, in his divine Heart, has the power to obtain pardon and to secure reparation.
The power of this consecration lasts for all time and embraces all individuals, peoples and nations. It overcomes every evil that the spirit of darkness is able to awaken, and has in fact awakened in our times, in the heart of man and in his history.
How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity and the world—our modern world—in union with Christ himself! For the redeeming work of Christ must be shared in by the world through the Church.
The present year of the Redemption shows this: the special Jubilee of the whole Church.
Above all creatures, may you be blessed, you, the Handmaid of the Lord, who in the fullest way obeyed the divine call!
Hail to you, who are wholly united to the redeeming consecration of your Son!
Mother of the Church! Enlighten the People of God along the paths of faith, hope and love! ENLIGHTEN ESPECIALLY THE PEOPLES WHOSE CONSECRATION AND ENTRUSTMENT BY US YOU ARE AWAITING. Help us to live in the truth of the consecration of Christ for the entire human family of the modern world.
3. In entrusting to you, oh Mother, the world, all individuals and peoples, we also entrust to you this very consecration of the world, placing it in your motherly Heart.
Immaculate Heart! Help us to conquer the menace of evil, which so easily takes root in the hearts of the people of today, and whose immeasurable effects already weigh down upon our modern world and seem to block the paths towards the future!
From famine and war, deliver us.
From nuclear war, from incalculable self-destruction, from every kind of war, deliver us.
From sins against the life of man from its very beginning, deliver us.
From hatred and from the demeaning of the dignity of the children of God, deliver us.
From every kind of injustice in the life of society, both national and international, deliver us.
From readiness to trample on the commandments of God, deliver us.
From attempts to stifle in human hearts the very truth of God, deliver us.
From the loss of awareness of good and evil, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.
From sins against the Holy Spirit, deliver us, deliver us.
Accept, Oh Mother of Christ, this cry laden with the sufferings of all individual human beings, laden with the sufferings of whole societies.
Help us with the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer all sin: individual sin and the “sin of the world”, in all its manifestations.
Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite saving power of the Redemption: the power of merciful Love! May it put a stop to evil! May it transform consciences! May your Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of Hope!https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/papal-consecrations-to-the-immaculate-heart-7140
As to your 2nd question, more than one 20th century Pope suffered due to being the Vicar of Christ but only John Paul II physically suffered for this as well being shot 4 times at close range in 1981, and miraculously survived, on the anniversary of Our Lady’s 1st appearance at Fatima.
Thank you, 007. That is vey generous of you.