Invitations to pray are multiplying on the websites of the European Bishops’ Conferences for March 25th, the day on which Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The same Act will be repeated in lots of churches in Europe. First in Moscow, where the archbishop, Paolo Pezzi, will officiate Mass in the Cathedral at 6.00 pm, followed by the live stream of Pope Francis’s celebration from Rome at 7.00 pm. To all the communities and parishes of the diocese, the archbishop asked to join in that moment. In the Catholic diocese of Irkutsk, the Act of Consecration will happen at 11.30 am instead and will be officiated by the bishop, Kirill Klimovich. In the distant Nur-Sultan, Catholics are invited to meet in their communities to pray or see the live stream from Rome, that “peace and forgiveness may win”: it will be 10.00 pm in the capital of Kazakhstan.
In Sweden, the nuncio, James Green, will superintend the prayer and the consecration after Solemn Mass in the cathedral of Stockholm, while card. Anders Arborelius will do it at the end of Mass in the Church of St Thomas in Lund. In Oslo, the Act of Consecration will take place after Mass, celebrated in St Olav’s Cathedral at 6.00 pm. In Malta, it will be the auxiliary bishop, Joseph Galea Curmi, who will officiate the Act of Consecration in the church of the Annunciation, in Balzan. Calls to a special celebration can also be found on the websites of the Dutch dioceses, as well as in Luxembourg, where card. Jean-Claude Hollerich will officiate the prayer for peace in Ukraine in the Sacred Heart Church, at 7.00 pm. In Estonia, Philippe Jourdan, bishop of Tallinn, asked all Estonian Catholics to take a few minutes on Friday at 6.00 pm and, “wherever they are, at home, in church, at work, in the streets or anywhere else, read the prayer of devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” or, with some other Marian prayer, “join the prayer of the Holy Father and of all Catholics”. A similar call is echoed by the websites of Lithuania and Latvia.