For their short pithy brilliant whimsical way of saying things, I love to collect Twitter and other Quality Quintessential quips, quotes, questions, musings and maxims from the furthest reaches of the internet to the obscure book hidden in the dusty corner of some long forgotten book store and save them for a rainy day post. I just might need some wonderful wordful beauty to express a sentiment or idea in what I’m writing so I created this particular post with that purpose in mine.

Tweeting to the Choir: A Collection of Tweets

Janet@Mystagogy1013: Tweeting to the choir gives us all support and encouragement, which is much needed in these days.

This peculiarly particular post is the offspring of that larger post with a more specific focus in mind from a topic listed in that larger post. It is also but one of the many children of that post. You can go big or go home to this shorter post and pluck what you need from the collected treasure of the Broad Chorus of Catholic Thinkers and similar like minded individuals and insert it into whatever it is your working on at the moment. Or perhaps you just might want to read a short something that will put a chuckle, a prayer or a nifty thought into your brain. And perhaps any truth beauty or goodness may leak into your soul making you a more loving, faithful and hopeful person and draw you closer to Christ.

In this post were Tweeting to the Choir about…

Fatima and Marian Apparitions

First Things to Note

TheAmishCatholic@AmishCatholic: The truth of the Gospel does not hang upon whether the Blood of San Germano liquifies, whether Our Lady appeared to Ugandan schoolgirls, or whether the Divine Mercy was a real revelation to Faustina Kowalska. One can believe in all these things (I believe in some), but it’s emphatically secondary. Also, it seems to me that we shouldn’t lump together apparitions and private revelation with miracles, which at least seem patient of some kind of empirical verification. One doesn’t need to go far in the other direction and go around debunking cherished devotions, but it is actually very important not to confuse those devotions with public revelation.

Chezami@chezami: The first thing it is vital to understand is that the Church is not bound by private revelation. It is bound only by public revelation, which closed with the death of the apostles.

So the Pope does not *have* to do anything a public revelation says to do, even if the Church deems that private revelation worthy of belief. We could go till doomsday without the Holy Father having consecrated Russia to Mary and he would be absolutely within his rights and fidelity to the duties of his office to do so. If you don’t know that, you do not understand the Faith you claim to champion. Mary is not a super-pope and she does not govern the Church. Peter does.

It is his call whether or not to consecrate Russia and it is his call to say whether or not that consecration was carried out on March 25, 1984.

It was.

So every spouting Reactionary popinjay saying otherwise and fomenting conspiracy theories about the Church concerning this stuff is acting as an enemy of the Church, not a disciple. The Message of Fatima (vatican.va)

So the pope does not *have* to do anything a *private* revelation says to do. (D’oh!)

The Consecration that Worked

Fr. Matthew Schneider@FrMatthewLC: When Sr. Lucia said JP2 consecrated Russia & an overwhelming amount of evidence supports this, we can say Russia was properly consecrated.

To claim otherwise, you have to twist some very complex web that is so astronomically unlikely as to be functionally impossible.

Alex@Alex11583274: Hadn’t Russia already been consecrated to the Virgin Mary, I thought it was one of the Fatima requests/revelations?

Anonymous Carmelite: Yes, it was. Consecrations can be renewed though. Many people do their consecration to Jesus through Mary every year.

Who is to say Our Lady was not happy with the last one? I’m now super fed up with all these Twitter people undermining Sr Lucia and pretending they know more about it than the very person who actually was a Fatima Seer and said Our Lady’s request was already fulfilled.

Fr. Tom Bombadil@calix517: Yeah I’m with Sr. Lucia and the Vatican’s official statement that the consecration was already accomplished. But this makes it super clear for everyone, especially the scrupulous. Part of me is just surprised that this actually happened with an explicit naming of Russia.

What is the Consecration supposed to do?

Fr. Dwight Longenecker@dlongenecker1: I expect somebody will say “You’re still a Protestant Father…” but I really would like to know what the Pope’s consecration is supposed to do if it “works”. What is the expectation? The conversion of Russia? Didn’t that already happen with the fall of communism?

So What if it didn’t

Emily, praying for peace ��@EmilyKath319: Has anyone considered… even if it doesn’t meet the specific conditions by Our Lady of Fatima, it’s still an objectively *good* thing for Russia and Ukraine to be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart (if we believe consecration is in any way efficacious) ???

The Consecration Conspiracy

Mr. Automatic@DJMrAutomatic: The Fatima “consecrate Russia” conspiracy theory, is a prime example of the kind of thing that has allowed anti-vax and Qanon conspiracies to flourish in church communities. Faith devoid of reason quickly leads to the darkness of superstition and fear. I’ll elaborate on my Fatima statement. Since childhood, I’ve watched some Catholics waiting for Fatima to apply to anything from the cold war to Ukraine today. Human beings look for patterns in everything, and the desire to be privy to special information is a powerful instinct.

Classical Theist ✠@ClassicalTheis: “unless pope francis does the consecration to Russia with all the bishops in the world balancing a glass of chocolate milk on his head while singing the bikini bottom national anthem it doesn’t count �”

Mary Pezzulo@mary_pezzulo: Wait til the Fatimaniac crowd find out Mary was speaking in Portuguese and not ecclesiastical Latin when she asked for a consecration.

Read Further

Possible Reasons Why the Consecration to Russia Didn’t Work.

The Plot to Destroy the Consecration

We’re FAAAATIMAAAAANIACS!

We’re unable to relax!

Those candles must be wax

And you’d better pray and fast

We’re Fatimaniacs!

A Ditty for the Fatimaniacs | Mary Pezzulo (patheos.com)

Consecration =/= Conversion

Catholic Joe@catholicjose: Consecration =/= Conversion

I’m seeing too many people confusing this two bcuz “Russia hasn’t been properly consecrated”.

First, you need to read more about the history of Fatima, Sr Lucy, St JPII, Pope Pius XII, and Soviet Union. You’ll see Russia been consecrated

Second, consecration DOES NOT equal conversion. Consecration is to be set a part by God. Conversion is acting on God’s prompting of His Holy Spirit. An example, at birth I was consecrated and baptism to our Lord. I lived a VERY sinful lifestyle until I converted 12yrs ago. See the difference?

So plz get this straight and just don’t believe everything you see on dumb website.

Pax ✌️

Processing Apparitions

Henry Karlson@HenryKarlsonIII:As St John of the Cross and Rahner pointed out, even if you have authentic locutions and apparitions, this doesn’t mean you properly understand them, and our reception of them can be influenced by our own mind. This is why those who are so literal with apparitions go astray.Their value is not really the words, but grace; the words can be distorted by us, but the grace transcends us. This is also why some can be great, holy saints, have had some sort of apparitional experience, and yet be off in what they say (for example, children).

The grace was real, but their minds only understood the experience in a very narrow and imperfect manner.

Apparition Rule

Greg7190@greg7190: I think this rule should apply with apparitions – unless it helps with growth in Gospel values, following Jesus and faith, hope and charity, it can be safely ignored (especially if it has nonsense about the end of the world).

A Good Example of Pius Devotion

the HippieCatholic@hippiecatholic: My favorite pic of my dog & I after we did our rosary livestream on TikTok for the Consecration of Russia!
Stand with Ukraine, pray for world peace �
Follow me on TikTok for more rosary livestreams and other mystical catholic content!
@thehippiecatholic on TikTok

Catholic Sat@CatholicSat-May 13th: On the very same day the Blessed Virgin Mary first appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, was consecrated a Bishop by the hands of Pope Benedict XV in the Sistine Chapel.