Archbishop Cordileone Consecrates San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart
On October 7, 2017, Feast of the Holy Rosary, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone consecrated the Archdiocese of San Francisco to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This consecration was done in honor of the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima. The Archbishop preached on “Fatima: A Call to Spiritual Arms for the Salvation and Peace of the World.” He encouraged the faithful to focus on Our Lady’s message and requests at Fatima, rather than on the supernatural phenomena surrounding the apparitions such as the miracle of the sun.
Vision of Hell: An Image of Today’s World
Cordileone spoke of the vision of hell vouchsafed to the three shepherd children, and pointed out that failure to obey Our Lady’s instructions has brought us to a point where the world that surrounds us seems indeed to be a reflection of hell. “If we think about the century we are now concluding,” the Archbishop said, “does it not show itself to be one that in so many ways has been a living reflection of hell, one that on so many fronts has roundly mocked God?”
He spoke of war, genocide –including legal abortion, “a genocide on life in the womb”-, and the spread of moral depravity throughout the last hundred years. This reflection of hell, he said, reminds us of “our need to heed the message of Fatima in imploring God for mercy.”
On this occasion, he denounced legal homosexual “marriage,” and made a reference to Pride Parades, as ways in which God is mocked.
“And even in our own city of St. Francis, we see…the celebration and even exaltation of the vulgar and the blasphemous, mocking God’s beautiful plan in how He created us, in our very bodies, for communion with one another and Himself,” he said.
“God is roundly mocked in our very streets, and it is met with approval and applause in our community – and yet, we remain silent,” he added.
“This next century,” the Archbishop told the faithful, “can be radically different,” but only “if we heed the message and respond to the requests” of Our Lady.
Consecration to the Immaculate Heart: A Call to Arms
Archbishop Cordileone made it clear to his listeners that the consecration of the Archdiocese was not to be understood as an isolated event, to live on only as a pleasant memory. On the contrary, it was to be seen as a first step towards accomplishing Our Lady’s instructions to attain the twofold goal of world peace and eternal salvation.
“What we are about today is a call to arms,” the Archbishop said. He asked that all of the faithful of the Archdiocese of San Francisco to take to heart Our Lady’s “threefold recipe for peace and salvation:” prayer, penance and adoration.
The Archbishop celebrating a pontifical Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest during the closing of the Sacra Liturgica conference in 2016
A Program of Action: Prayer, Penance, Adoration
Not content with mere generalizations, Archbishop Cordileone gave his flock a remarkably clear and succinct program of action.
Prayer
Archbishop Cordileone asked that every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco begin praying the Rosary every day. Furthermore, he asked every family in the Archdiocese to pray the Rosary together at least once a week.
Penance
Our Lady also called for penance, and the Archbishop emphasized the need for penance, on Fridays in particular, and for frequent Confession. He asked “every Catholic in the Archdiocese of San Francisco to dedicate Friday as a day of penance in honor of the day that our Lord died for us, selecting one concrete form of bodily fasting to observe on this day.” The Archbishop also asked all of the faithful of the Archdiocese to confess their sins at least once a month.
Adoration
The Archbishop instructed all Catholics in the Archdiocese to make a practice of Eucharistic adoration, dedicating “some time each week to pray before the Blessed Sacrament.” As reparation for sins, especially sins of blasphemy, the Archbishop asked that all Catholics in the Archdiocese make the First Five Saturdays requested by Our Lady once a year.
Archbishop Cordileone was appointed to the see of San Francisco by Benedict XVI in 2012. A former canon lawyer, he has frequently been attacked for his strong conservative stance on Catholic moral issues, which contrasts starkly with the progressive zeitgeist in the San Francisco area. He occasionally says the Traditional Mass and supports its use in the diocese, notably at Star of the Sea Catholic Church, currently under the care of Fr. Joseph Illo. FSSPX News reported on the blessing of the new Adoration Chapel at Star of the Sea in March 2017.
Sources: National Catholic Register – Archdiocese of San Francisco – Crux – Lifesite News – sspx.org
