Bishops across the United States joined Pope Francis in consecrating Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Masses were held on Friday, the Solemnity of the Annunciation, and timed to coincide with the Holy Father’s liturgy in Rome.
In Washington, 2000 people filled the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception where Cardinal Wilton Gregory led the Mass and recited the prayer of consecration. Among those attending the Mass were members of the diplomatic corps representing some 40 nations. In his homily, Gregory said, “it would be no exaggeration to say that we come together today at one of the darker moments in human history.” After the recitation of the act of consecration, the choir of the National Shrine sang a Ukrainian hymn to the virgin.
In Chicago, some 33 bishops were attending an ecclesiology conference at Loyola University and they joined Cardinal Blase Cupich at Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. Among the concelebrants was Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, and the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Also attending the liturgy was Bishop Venedykt Aleksiychuk, of the Ukarinian Eparchy of St. Nicholas which is based in Chicago. The nuncio led the congregation in the prayer of consecration.
Ukrainian Archbishop Borys Gudziak, the highest ranking prelate in the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States joined Philadelphia’s Archbishop Nelson Perez at Mass in that city’s Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. In his homily, Gudziak observed that “The frailty of our human nature is starkly before our eyes, and yet there are so many graces that God is giving.”
The most striking act of consecration was in Toksook Bay, Alaska, where Bishop Chad Zielinski of Fairbanks offered the prayer on the shore of the Bering Strait, which separates the United States from Russia by only a few miles.
Various Ukrainian churches and shrines also hosted liturgies to join in the worldwide prayer. “Ukraine is very devoted to Mary,” 72-year-old Luba Munter from Alexandria, Virginia, told the Catholic News Agency after attending Mass at the Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C. “So if you're going to do a consecration to Mary, that would be perfect — I think a perfect solution right now.”
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