...because the media still is in love with El Francesco. He's playing up a theme near and dear to left-wing hearts... "peace." Francis is quite clever in this. He's turning a Catholic consecration into an anti-war statement and the media can't get enough of it. Consider the context. He isn't doing this "because The Blessed Mother asked", he's doing it for "peace in da Ukraine" and to "end war". This is probably Francis' last chance to revisit the happy hippie days only now he's the head of The Catholic Church, the world's largest religion. He has and will continue to spin this into something it isn't.

I agree with John 333. Bergoglio has something up his sleeve. I do not believe he is doing this for traditional Catholic reasons, or belief in Our Lady of Fatima. Probably some secular reason, like just to relieve the suffering of the Ukraine in the war....nothing to do with Russia and its errors. Seventy years ago, a Pope announcing something like this would be a magnificent ceremony and procession, with Cardinals, Bishops processing and the Pope on the Sedia Gestatoria leading up to a beautiful altar, and the Piazza di San Pietro packed with 500,000 Romans and faithful, as it was in 1950 when the great Pope Pius XII defined and declared the Dogma of the Assumption, and in 1954 at the canonization of the great St.Pope Pius X. Now, it is set to be performed during the course of a "penance service" in St.Peter's. I'll bet there will be no ceremony, no impressive ritual, just a homily by Bergoglio, and a 10 minute fabricated rite of consecration. I'll even bet that if Benedict XVI was10 years younger and was well and still pope, he would do it in a magnificent way which would almost be like it was in 1950.