In recent years the flow of evidence that Russia’s supposed consecration in 1984 has not had the effect promised by the Mother of God - meaning only that the consecration She requested has not been done, since Her promises are unerring - has grown from a trickle to a torrent to a deluge.

        And now the same neo-Catholic establishment that has perpetrated the Big Lie on Fatima is being forced to admit the truth it can no longer hide. Witness a story by Zenit.org on September 15, 2002 entitled "Russia Reportedly Has a Blacklist of Catholic Priests." The story quotes Bishop Werth of Novosibirsk, in Western Siberia, to the effect that "Russia has compiled a blacklist of Catholic priests it intends to expel in the near future." The article goes on to recount Bishop Werth’s comments that there is a "‘new wave of persecution’ against the Catholic Church in the [Russian] federation…."

       A new wave of persecution against the Catholic Church…. in Russia? But how could this be since - all together now - there has been a MIR-acle in Russia, yes a MIR-acle, since the "consecration" of 1984?

       According to Zenit, Bishop Werth says that "the police blacklist includes about a dozen names of foreign Catholic priests who will soon be expelled." Zenit notes that "To date, Bishop Jerzy Mazur of St. Joseph in Irkutsk, eastern Siberia, as well as four priests of Italian, Polish and Slovak nationality, have been expelled."

       And then this: "Bishop Werth said that Russia needs a ‘spiritual rebirth, because people want to experience a real inner conviction.’ Only 1% of Russian Orthodox go to church."

       So, 18 years after The Consecration That Wasn’t a key bishop in Russia admits that "that poor nation" (to recall Sister Lucy’s phrase) needs a "spiritual rebirth" because not even the Orthodox religion can command the adherence of more than 1% of the Russian people.

       For 18 years Father Nicholas Gruner has been mocked, scorned, declared an outcast and even threatened with "excommunication" by the same ecclesial establishment - both lay and clerical - that has presided over the Fatima debacle. Year after year I have watched this good priest, who has remained faithful to his vows, suffer the ridicule of "enlightened" lay commentators in the neo-Catholic press, denunciations from the Vatican and other abuses. I even sat there, in a Vatican office, as Father Gruner was at the point of tears explaining to a Vatican functionary why he could not give up his work in behalf of the Message of Fatima. Father Gruner? Ha-ha-ha, say the "enlightened" ones.

       But who’s laughing now? And who will suffer the ridicule of history’s judgment? Will it be Father Gruner and those who agree with him, or those who have been telling us for the past 18 years that Russia was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary when the evidence of our own senses was all to the contrary?

       They owe the man an apology - every last one of them.