Today, Catholics honor Our Lady of Fatima, referring to a series of 1917 apparitions of Christ’s mother to three poor Portuguese shepherd children to warn them that the world must repent, return to Christ, and reject the “error of Russia,” i.e., Soviet Communism and all its attendant evils.
Our Lady warned that if Russia were not publicly and specifically consecrated to her immaculate heart, and if the world would not heed her warning, another horrific war would follow close upon WWI (then ongoing). Russia’s error would spread “throughout the world,” leaving death, destruction, and persecution in its wake.
Sadly, not enough people listened to the warning, and no pope since then has publicly and explicitly consecrated Russia as Mary requested. And we see now that Communism has indeed spread around the world, leaving war crimes, tyranny, persecution of Christianity, and genocide in its trail.
In July 1917, as the Marxist Bolshevik Revolution was unfolding in Russia and the mass slaughter of World War I was ongoing, Our Lady of Fatima cautioned Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, “The war [World War I] is going to end; but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out.”
Like a truly loving mother, she presented a solution, but one which we did not accept, preferring our eugenics, sexual sin, secularism, and excessive indulgence. “To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, and the Communion on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated,” Our Lady prophesied.
How many nations have been destroyed, convulsed, or taken over by Communism since then; how many millions of people murdered by Marxist dictators! Indeed, Communism is one of the two ideologies most responsible for the persecution of Christians in the world today. Yet even here in the United States, many in academia and government adhere to Communism or its slightly modified form, socialism.
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When I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Fatima last year with my mother, I was able to see a large slab taken from the Berlin Wall, which was gifted to Fatima as a sign that Our Lady conquered Soviet Russia after all; the wall fell, and the Soviet government lost power. Within eyesight is the spot where Our Lady appeared to the shepherd children to issue her dire warning.
The Berlin Wall and the spot where Our Lady appeared, Fatima, Portugal pic.twitter.com/ZTH4hi2edQ
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) May 13, 2025
Yes, indeed, she and her Son did conquer Soviet Russia. But unless we finally take her warning to heart, the error of Russia will continue to spread, as it has already taken over many countries like China and Vietnam, and is steadily poisoning others, including the United States. The threat of Communism is something with which all of us, Jews or Christians, Catholics or non-Catholics, should agree.
