On Friday evening in Rome, a century-old prophecy was fulfilled, at least in the eyes of some Catholics. At the Vatican, Pope Francis led a prayer for peace in Ukraine, along with a call to free the world "from the menace of nuclear weapons" and a request for forgiveness for humanity having "forgotten the lessons learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two World Wars." That's not a surprising appeal from a religious leader who has spent weeks trying to intercede in the bloody war underway in Eastern Europe. More specifically though, the pope's prayer consecrates Ukraine and Russia "to the Immaculate Heart of Mary" — a reference to the purported apparition of the Virgin Mary before three Portuguese children in 1917, which has become a touchstone to many conservative Catholics ever since.
It's heavy inside-baseball to get into what the consecration means, and why it's causing consternation among some of Francis' fiercest critics. But taking a step back, the pontiff's prayer also amounts to a religious intervention in a conflict that has been widely described as a religious war.
