Pope Francis prays for Ukraine, using the "Secrets of Fatima"

Pope Francis presided over a prayer for Ukraine that dates back to a century-old apocalypse prophecy of peace and Russia, which was sparked by the allegations of three children seeing the Virgin Mary in the Portuguese town of Fatima in 1917.

Francis invited bishops, priests, and the general faithful around the world to join him in the consecration prayer on Friday afternoon.

To universalize the prayer, the Vatican has translated the text of the prayer into thirty languages.

These rites have profound spiritual significance to many Catholics and a source of fascination for many others, as they deal with some of the most controversial aspects of Catholic faith: alleged visions of the Virgin, prophecies of hell, Soviet communism and the death of the Pope, and whether the prophecies contained in the so-called "Secrets of Fatima" were fulfilled. occurred or not.

The mass is Francis' latest effort to mobilize prayers for an end to the war while maintaining open options for dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church and its influential leader, Patriarch Kirill, who has not condemned Russia.

The story of Fatima dates back to 1917, when Portuguese brothers Francisco and Jacinta Marto and their cousin Lucia said that the Virgin Mary appeared to them six times and told them three secrets.

The first two secrets described the horrific picture of Hell and predicted the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II, and the rise and fall of Soviet communism, and the children's ages ranged between 7 and 10 at the time.

In the year 2000, the Vatican revealed the third long-awaited secret, as it predicted the attempted assassination of Saint John Paul II on May 13, 1981 in Saint Peter's Square.

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