Then we started another one, and this one was a short one. It was started in the beginning of November; it was to be finished for Christmas, so less than two months. And we got 1.7 millions of rosaries in that very short time. Short notice too, but the result was even more striking because the month of January was not finished when we already had in our pocket the decree, which was not exactly what we had asked for, because we asked for the first decree to be taken away, to be removed, and Rome removed the excommunication, not exactly the decree. I may say we don’t agree with this, but the result is the same: now there is no talk anymore about excommunication. So the result, the final effect is the same. So in that sense we can really say that we were heard by the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This speed surprised everybody, ourselves included, we didn’t expect results so quickly: imagine that, when I went to Rome to give to the pope this bouquet, at the same meeting where I gave the result, I got the decree, which is absolutely amazing.

And so I have no doubt that God wanted to show us how pleased He is when we pray, and how ready He is to listen to our impossible requests. This thing looked like something impossible. I remember that when we asked Rome—that was in the year 2001—for the freedom of the Mass and for the excommunication, there were several people who said: “Well, Bishop Fellay does not want any agreement with Rome; the proof is that he is asking for impossible things! He is requesting the impossible, that’s the proof that he does not want any agreement.” Well, less than 10 years after that, we have everything, and so it was not impossible, at least through prayer.

And so, if God wants to show us such effective answers, He is inviting us to ask for more, and that is what we are doing now with this crusade which is, yes, a great one; and we also ask for much more, this time, we ask for the triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but she promised, she promised that her Immaculate Heart shall triumph, so we ask for it, and we know that God likes people who count on Him, who trust Him enough to ask Him, with great desires that what He wants might happen: “Thy will be done.” There is a tremendous example in the Old Testament, and it is the example of Daniel, the prophet Daniel. An angel came to Him and said: “Because you are a man of desire, the time of the coming of Christ will be hastened.” It’s amazing! Because one man had such a desire, such a hope, was so trusting in prayer, God just changed all history, the whole current of human history, because of one man, a man of desire.

And so now, we just gather together, maybe we are not as holy as Daniel, but we are certainly more numerous, and we go to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so, with her, we can be certain that we will get what God wants.

This last Rosary Crusade: why the consecration of Russia?

Why Russia? We could have asked many things, for example the good results for our discussions, which would have been much closer to us, and more concrete. Once again I thought that this time we should go right to the top. Once again these signs, God's granting our little prayers, they are so striking that I think if God shows so much love towards us, granting so much, so much mercy, it means that He wants us to ask for more. There is a wonderful expression of St Thomas speaking of hope. He says that in hope, we count on God’s promise and God promised to help us with his infinite power. And St Thomas says: from this help, of an infinite power, we do not have the right to expect less than infinite good for us. I would say that here it is about the same. If we see God who is ready to help us so much, then he wants us to ask for more, real things, and definitely the triumph of Mary is a great thing. And we see in Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary said there that God wanted to introduce and to give to the world this devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; and this devotion, definitely will be strengthened by this triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and so to want, to desire this triumph goes right along the line of this wish, of this will of God for a greater admiration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother. And so, that’s why this time I wanted to ask for this triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And with it, I think all the rest is included. If you go to the top, you have all the consequences which fall into place by themselves. You have the triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you have the end of this crisis, you have also the end of this crisis of the faith, you have the end of this turmoil and confusion about the Council which has brought so much, so much disaster into the Church. And so we just ask for everything together, asking for the triumph of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Should we prepare for persecution?

I don’t exclude that. Look at the triumph of Our Lord, this wonderful, tremendous triumph when He receives the adoration of the pagan nations, the three kings who come to Him. It’s glorious! They represent all the pagans, so you have all the pagans who come to Jesus, who venerate Him, who adore Him, who give Him very precious gifts, and the following night, Our Lord has to go to Egypt, has to flee away. There is persecution, all the little children there in Bethlehem are killed by Herod. You see this triumph is closely united to suffering. And I may say, in our life, in the Christian life, you have this all the time. Look at the triumph on Palm Sunday: Our Lord is received triumphally with all this crowd; they receive Him as a king in Jerusalem; that same week He will be crucified and die on the cross. That same week. You have this triumph… and His death. And then His Resurrection. And so, oh yes, I definitely do not exclude persecution, but always remembering that out of it, there will be [a triumph].

The last question today, do you have a special word for the families in the United States District?

I surely do. The family is very clearly, in the will of God, this little cell, this holy place where a human being becomes a child of God, and where he learns to be and to behave as a child of God. And so the enemies, the enemies of God, and of Christianity, they do all they can to demolish the family. And that’s what we are experiencing. There too we have a disaster, a great crisis, this time not in the Church but on the level of the whole human society, the social body. And so we do exactly the contrary. We stick together. The same thing we do in the Church, in the fighting for the Church, we have to do at the level of human society, and that means we have to really foster these Christian families. We have to stick together, father, mother, children. And so for the fathers and the mothers, they must take care of their children, they must really give them the time which their children desperately need. They need their father, they need their mother. And so, for the fathers and mothers, for the parents, please, give that time, it’s not lost, it’s never lost, and the children, they need that. That will really nourish, strengthen all these links in the Catholic family. It’s not just only the family, it’s the Catholic family. And what matters the most is the supernatural side, the grace which is going to give the strength which is needed to fight against these enemies or tendencies of the modern world which are just making the family explode, putting individualism everywhere, sapping this strength of the family. And so, yes, that’s really an invitation to build that link, on the sacraments, remembering that marriage is a sacrament, and that it flows from the cross, from the mass, like every sacrament. And so family life has to be built also on that center which is the mass, along with prayer, and especially, again, the prayer of the Rosary. The one does not eliminate the other. It is necessary that parents be with their children, and with the Rosary, it’s better.

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