Coronavirus: 24 Countries Implore the Virgin Mary

A few days before the Feast of the Annunciation, the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference announced that the country would be dedicated to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the evening of March 25 in Fatima.

The Lusitanian bishops, quickly joined by their Spanish colleagues, also invited all national episcopal conferences which saw fit to join this initiative.

In addition to Spain and Portugal, there are twenty-two countries hit more or less severely by the Covid-19 epidemic, which have been given to Christ and Mary: Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Slovakia, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Kenya, Dominican Republic, Romania, Tanzania, East Timor, and Zimbabwe.

During the ceremony presided over by Cardinal Antonio Marto, Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, the high prelate recalled that Francisco and Jacinta Marto, the little shepherds to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in 1917, were both victims of the Spanish influenza pandemic which was raging at that time.

It should also be noted that the Church in France—a land blessed by the apparitions of Our Lady in Lourdes—was not associated with the consecration project launched by the Portuguese episcopate. The French bishops preferred to invite the French to make “a common gesture” on March 25, which for Catholics would consist in placing a candle in a window at the time of the ringing of the bells.