Colombia to be consecrated to Immaculate Heart of Mary on Fatima Day

(LifeSiteNews) — Colombia will be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, May 13.

The consecration will take place as part of the fourth national rosary for peace and reconciliation.

The event is organized by Catholic lay groups and has the support of the Colombian Catholic bishops. It will be held under the theme, “Colombia’s Peace and Reconciliation Are Built Upon the Conversion of Your Heart” as the country suffers the ravages of decades of drug trafficking and violent Marxist guerrilla groups.

The event will feature two main parts on May 13. At 11 a.m., the rosary will be recited, and Holy Mass will be celebrated at Bogotá cathedral. Afterward, the president of Colombia’s bishops’ conference, Archbishop Francisco Javier Múnera, will consecrate the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The second part of the event will commence at 5 p.m. in Bogotá’s Plaza de Bolívar with a candle procession, the recitation of the rosary, and Eucharistic adoration.

The organizers said that they will ask the Blessed Mother to intercede “for the conversion of Colombians, in order to achieve peace and reconciliation.”

Múnera invited Colombians living both in the country and abroad to “join in on May 13 for the great act of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary.”

“We will ask the mother of the Lord to rekindle hope within us, sustain unity, and intercede for the reconciliation and peace of all Colombians,” the archbishop stated.

On the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, the Catholic Church celebrates the first apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917. During the apparitions, which occurred every 13th day of the month for six months, until October 13, 1917, Our Lady urged the faithful to pray the rosary daily – especially for peace and the end of World War I – as well as to pray and to make acts of penance for offenses against God, and to observe the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays.

As part of her message, Our Lady of Fatima promoted devotion to her Immaculate Heart and asked that the pope, together with all the bishops, would consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart so that the country may be converted and a period of peace may be granted to the world.