Angelus News | April 8, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 7

pastor Msgr. Sal Pilato led students
in the prayer of consecration sent by
Pope Francis to bishops and priests after
Communion at the school’s 8 a.m.
Mass. Afterward, students gathered in
the school hall to watch the livestream
of the consecration at St. Peter’s
Basilica.
At St. Joseph’s School in La Puente,
students and staff participated in the
consecration before Friday morning
Mass, gathering around the school’s
outdoor Fátima shrine to pray the
rosary and recite the prayer of consecration.
Each
student left a
yellow flower at
the foot of the
statue of Mary,
which is accompanied
by statues
of the three Portuguese
shepherd
children who
witnessed the
Fátima apparitions
in 1917.
St. Joseph’s
principal Roger
Ranney said he
was moved by the
students’ reverence
during the
service.
“It was evident
our students
understood the
solemn nature of
the prayer service
and its special purpose,” he said.
At Christ the King School in Los
Angeles, students attended a 9:15
a.m. Mass before participating in a
candle-lighting ceremony for peace.
Students also presented a special mural
where they could add their prayers
for peace, created in partnership with
Scholas Occurrentes USA. As in many
other parishes, church bells rang 29
times to mark the number of days
since the start of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine on Feb. 24.
“It breaks my heart into a million
pieces,” read one of the students’
prayers posted to the mural. “Let the
people pray and let Ukraine know we
are here to help them out and doing
everything we can do.”
At St. Charles Borromeo School in
North Hollywood, the consecration
was done at the beginning of the
school’s previously scheduled Stations
of the Cross, also at 9:15 a.m.
“It was a humbling and unifying
experience for us to take part in a
simultaneous prayer with Catholics
around the world,” said principal John
E. Genova. “I am proud of our students
for the way they led our school
community in prayer.”
At All Souls World Language School
in Alhambra, some 400 students gathered
in the school parking lot Friday
Students at All Souls World Language School in Alhambra prayed in three languages at their outdoor consecration
service. | VICTOR ALEMÁN
morning to pray the consecration.
Since the school offers two dual-track
immersion programs in Spanish and
Mandarin, prayers were recited in
English, Spanish, and Mandarin.
Back at St. Anthony of Padua, the
idea of consecrating themselves and
their world felt familiar to students.
The March 25 consecration fell on
the ninth day of their school-wide consecration
to Mary, an annual tradition
started three years ago and timed to
culminate around the feast day of Our
Lady of Fátima on May 13.
Such timing, said St. Anthony principal
Angela Grey, was “a beautiful
coincidence” for her school.
“The ones in junior high really have
a closer connection [to the consecration],
but everybody understands
what’s happening,” said Grey, as
students attentively watched the pope’s
penance service with help from simultaneous
translation on EWTN.
In his homily at the school Mass,
Msgr. Pilato explained the historical
significance of the pope’s special gesture,
which also fell on the solemnity
of the Annunciation, and the story of
Our Lady of Fátima. A teacher from
his time before entering the seminary,
he remembered watching the television
broadcast of St. Pope John Paul
II’s consecration in 1984. But he never
imagined he’d be
a part of a similar
act of consecration
years later.
“I always tell
the kids that their
prayers are much
more powerful
than those of
adults,” he said.
St. Anthony
eighth-grader
Gianna Rubalcava
said she
was struck by the
text of the pope’s
consecration
prayer for a world
threatened by so
much suffering.
“It made you
realize how
much people
have fallen away
from God, and
how there’s a need for people to come
together to realize that,” said Rubalcava.
“There’s a need for peace.”
Sister Tao Pham, a sister of the
Lovers of the Holy Cross Los Angeles
and a religion teacher at St. Anthony,
noted to her students that Ukraine and
Russia are two countries with a historic
love for the Blessed Mother.
This act of consecration, she believes,
was a powerful reminder of Jesus’ call
to love one’s enemies.
“We offer love, we don’t offer war or
anything like that,” said Sister Tao.
“To be able to invoke our mother is
a great gift we can offer to those who
might harm us.”
Pablo Kay is the editor-in-chief of
Angelus.
April 8, 2022 • ANGELUS • 19