Now Waiting and Seeing

Now the consecration is done, and we wait to find out if it was really done as asked.  At this point, it is unknown how many bishops joined in.  My own bishop joined.  Cardinal Cupich joined in, so in all probability every bishop who is beholden to him also joined.  In what can only be described as a very curious thing for a bunch of "schismatics" to do, the SSPX bishops joined, though they did not use Pope Francis' text.  Bishop Fellay led the Rosary and made the act of consecration from St. Thomas Aquinas seminary in Virgina.  In his sermon, which was in English, Bishop Fellay denied the rumors that the Society's bishops had received personal invitations, but, wanting to take part, accepted the Pope's open invitation to all bishops.

I was able to tune in to the ceremonies in Rome just in time for the act of consecration.  It was rather depressing to see all the clerics -- and even the boys' choir -- in Fauci diapers.  The Pope looked up at the statue of our Lady of Fatima during the consecration with apparent devotion, which some will no doubt attribute to consummate acting skills.  Not attributable to acting skills, consummate or otherwise, was his gray complexion and obvious feebleness.  The Pope was not the picture of health.  Intrepid journalists who watched all the ceremonies and sermons associated with the consecration commented on the Lutheran theology preached by the Pope; and, of course, there are the criticisms of the flaws in the act of consecration.  Maybe some of the evidence for today's act being The Big One is that, objectively, so many errors abound in the upper echelons of the Church that if the consecration were to be delayed any longer, it would have become impossible for any Pope to find the words to do even the bare minimum.

So now we watch, and wait.  I continue to think this was probably the fulfillment of our Lady's wishes, but of course we will really only know when we see the fruits.  Let us pray that they are what we have been waiting for.