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CV NEWS FEED // The United States is marking the fifth anniversary of its renewed consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary, when US bishops on May 1, 2020, implored her intercession for the welfare of the country.
According to a May 1 article from the Catholic Standard, Archbishop José Gomez, then-acting president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), led the national consecration to Mary following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now the archbishop of Los Angeles, Archbishop Gomez said the Virgin Mary has long guided the US in its continual petition for her counsel and protection.
“The Virgin Mary has accompanied this great nation since our beginnings,” he said, according to the Catholic Standard.
Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, rector of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., emphasized the beauty of receiving Mary’s maternal care.
“As children run to their mother in times of crisis, emergency and joy, so, we should turn to Our Heavenly Mother at all times,” Msgr. Rossi told the Catholic Standard, “confident that in the words of the ancient prayer, Sub Tuum Praesidium, Our Lady will ‘deliver us from all dangers.’”
The 2020 consecration marked the third national dedication of the United States to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1792, the first US bishop, Bishop John Carroll, entrusted the nation to the Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception. Nearly a century later, US bishops designated her as America’s patroness. The May 1 article also noted that America was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1959.
