Consecration to the Two Hearts in Papal Teaching

Consecration to the Two Hearts in Papal Teaching

     In 1864 A. D. Cardinal Gousset of Rhiems, supported by Archbishop
     de la Tour-d'Auvergen of Bourges, Bishop Mermillod and other
     bishops of France and Spain petitioned Venerable Pope Pius IX to
     consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The
     Archbishop of Bourges renewed this petition at Vatican I. During
     the council Father Pere Henri Ramiere, S.J., the great promoter
     of the Apostleship of Prayer, presented a request to consecrate
     the whole Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This petition was
     supported by 272 Bishops, but was not acted upon due to the
     outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. In 1874 A. D. Cardinal
     Desprez, the archbishop of Toulouse, France, wrote to all the
     bishops of the world to promote once again the petition of Father
     Ramiere. By April of 1875 A. D., Father Ramiere was able to
     present this petition to Venerable Pope Pius IX along with the
     names of 534 Bishops and 23 superiors general of Religious
     institutes. In response to this petition, the pope had the Sacred
     Congregation of Rites compose and publish an "Act of Consecration
     to the Sacred Heart of Jesus" and he himself invited all the
     faithful to consecrate themselves on the 200th anniversary of Our
     Lord's apparition to St. Margaret, June 16, 1875 A. D..

     In 1891 A. D. the archbishops of Milan and Turin led a movement
     to consecrate the dioceses of Italy to the Most Holy Heart of
     Mary. In September, 1898 A. D., the Marian Congress of Turin, at
     the promptings of Pope Leo XIII, unanimously approved to petition
     Pope Leo XIII to this effect. On December 12, 1989 the Sacred
     Congregation of Rites approved a formula for diocesan
     consecration to the Heart of Mary.

     After the letters of Mother Mary of the Divine Heart (1863-1899)
     requesting, in the name of Christ Himself, that Pope Leo XIII to
     consecrate the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy
     Father commissions a group of theologians to examine the petition
     on the basis of revelation and sacred tradition. This
     investigation was positive. And so in the encyclical letter Annum
     Sacrum (May 25, 1899 A. D.) this same pope decreed that the
     consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of
     Jesus should take place on June 11, 1899 A. D.. In this
     encyclical letter the Pope attached Later Pope Leo XIII
     encouraged the entire Roman Catholic episcopate to promote the
     devotion of the Nine First Fridays and he established June as the
     Month of the Sacred Heart. Pope St. Pius X decreed that the
     consecration of the human race, performed by Pope Leo XIII be
     renewed each year. Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter
     Miserentissimus (May 8, 1928 A. D.) reaffirmed the importance of
     consecration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Finally
     Venerable Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary
     of Pope Pius IX's institution of the Feast, instructed the entire
     Catholic Church at length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in
     his encyclical letter Haurietis aquas (May 15, 1956 A. D.)

     It was Venerable Pope Pius XII who first consecrated the Church
     and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on October 31 and
     again, solemnly on December 8, 1942 A. D.. In recent times, moved
     by millions of petitions and by the occasion of the attempted
     assassination of his own person on the Feast of Our Lady of
     Fatima, May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II consecrated the world and
     every nation to the Immaculate Heart in 1982, and repeated this
     act in union with all the Catholic Bishops again in 1983 A.D.