WASHINGTON, D.C. — His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., will virtually join his brother Catholic bishops throughout the United States and Canada on May 1, 2020, in renewing the consecration of the two nations to the care of the Blessed Mother in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 3:00 p.m. (EDT) re-consecration will be led in Los Angeles by Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, with U.S. and Canadian bishops joining in their respective dioceses. Archbishop Broglio will take part in the prayer of consecration from the main chapel of the Edwin Cardinal O’Brien Pastoral Center in Washington, D.C., home base for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA (AMS). The AMS will live stream Archbishop Broglio’s participation on its Facebook page beginning at 3:00 p.m. EDT. The faithful are invited to take part online.
Through a collective dedication or entrustment of a nation to Mary, Mother of God, an act of consecration is meant to be a reminder to the faithful of the Blessed Mother’s witness to the Gospel and to ask for her effective intercession before her Son on behalf of those in need. Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, the first bishop of the United States, promoted devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, and placed the United States under her protection in a pastoral letter of 1792. The twenty-one bishops attending the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1846 determined to name the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, as the Patroness of the United States, and Pope Pius IX approved this decision the following year. More recently, the dedication of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., in 1959 was the opportunity for the bishops once again to consecrate the nation to the Blessed Mother. Several popes have likewise consecrated the world to Mary on various occasions.
