Question

Dear Father

In sending you the question below, we take this opportunity to thank you for your very useful column, and we will, of course, take advantage of it.

We are a group of friends who meet every Tuesday after work to recite the Holy Rosary.

Among our various intentions, there is also, primarily, the possibility of consecrating our Municipality to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We would appreciate your consideration regarding this act, which we feel is very important but do not fully grasp.

Therefore, we ask for your help in furthering our investigation.

We also ask you how it is implemented; some say it should be done by the mayor.

Thanking you in advance, we send you our warmest regards, and assure you of your remembrance in our Holy Rosary.

For the group

Piero

Reply from the priest

Dear Piero,

1. First of all, I am very happy that you are gathered among friends to recite the Holy Rosary after work.

I am convinced that this is a very beautiful experience in which your work and labors are transformed into prayer and an offering placed in the hands of Our Lady to be presented to our Lord as a holy and acceptable sacrifice (Rom. 12:1).

I believe that it was precisely from this experience that the idea of ​​consecrating the Municipality to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was born.

Deep down, you wish that the abundance of grace you all experience may be experienced by everyone. There is nothing more beautiful and evangelical.

2. For the Municipality as such to make its consecration, the entire community would need to agree. A majority is not enough.

Furthermore, this consecration should be expressed in some concrete manifestation, a public commitment, or specific rules or practices.

Otherwise, it would be a meaningless act, with no implications whatsoever.

I don’t know if such a consecration is feasible in such a multi-religious, secularized, and atheistic society.

It would certainly be wonderful if it could be done because everyone would participate. This is what our aspirations should always be.

3. In the past, several cities consecrated themselves to the Madonna with a formal act of religious and civic participation.

But in those days, everyone was Christian, even if not all were practicing.

The act of consecration required some public procession with the participation of civil and religious authorities, some annual offering, and the banning of practices completely alien to the spirit of the Gospel from their territory…

As you can see, the context was different, and no one would have hindered such an initiative, no matter how little personal fervor.

But, as you can see, these conditions no longer exist today.

4. However, if a group of people wish to perform a special consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the Municipality, even if not on behalf of the Municipality because they lack the authority, they can do so perfectly well.

In this case, the presence of religious or civil authorities is not required.

It is, in fact, a consecration of the Municipality to the Immaculate Heart of Mary performed by private individuals.

Private individuals can also involve the Mayor or other municipal representatives, if they share the same faith, in participating. But it would still remain, as you can see, a private matter.

5. Entrustment to Mary, however, is a different matter, even if the two terms are often interchanged.

John Paul II entrusted the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

This is a prayer, a religious act, a supplication that does not infringe upon religious freedom.

No one can prohibit individuals or religious authorities from entrusting the Municipality or the entire world to the merciful hands of Our Lady and her Most Pure Heart.

In this case, the religious authority, such as the bishop, the vicar, or the parish priest, may be involved.

This is my modest opinion, and I am ready to change it. These are not, in fact, doctrinal principles to which obedience of faith is due, but practical opportunities.

I join spiritually in your Rosary and, together with you, I offer it to Mary for your personal prosperity, for that of your families, and also for your Municipality.

I thank you for your precious remembrance in prayer, and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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