Bishops of Turkey consecrate country to Sacred Heart of Jesus

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Bishops of Turkey consecrate country to Sacred Heart of Jesus
In initiating the consecration, a Turkish priest was inspired by the ‘spiritual fruits’ of the consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart that occurred 150 years ago.



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Jun 18, 2024
IZMIR, Turkey (LifeSiteNews) — Turkey joined the ranks of more than 20 countries consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, June 7, the feast of the Sacred Heart.

Monsignor Marek Solczyński, apostolic nuncio to Turkey, presided over the consecration to the Sacred Heart at St. John’s Cathedral, Izmir, “surrounded by almost all the bishops of the country’s four Catholic communities — Latin, Armenian, Syriac, and Chaldean,” according to the National Catholic Register.

The idea of consecration came from Father Alessandro Amprino, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Izmir who will represent the Turkish Catholic Church in Quito, Ecuador at the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress. The South American country was the first in the world to become consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1874, 150 years ago, as requested by President Gabriel García Moreno.

Since then, 24 countries were consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Fatima, Portugal, at the request of their bishops’ conferences, including Portugal, Albania, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Slovakia, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Mexico, Moldova, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Romania, Spain, Tanzania, East Timor, and Zimbabwe.

Amprino explained that he was inspired by the “enthusiasm” and “spiritual fruits” of Ecuador’s consecration, the Register reported. He proposed the idea to the Turkish Episcopal Conference (CET) as a special way to celebrate Turkey’s national Eucharistic year of the Catholic Church, which has been organized this year together with Quito’s bishops.

The consecration is to be complemented by a spiritual retreat for religious in Iskenderun as well as the conclusion of the national Eucharistic year on November 24.

Archbishop Martin Kmetec, OFM Conv., of Izmir, president of the bishops’ conference, said that the purpose of the consecration was “to rediscover and renew the consecration which took place on the day of baptism, to renounce the seductions of evil to live in the freedom of the children of God, to place one’s whole life in the hands of Christ, even in the face of violence.”

His comments come almost five months after a terrorist attack was carried out at the church of the Nativity of Our Lady in Büyükdere.

The origins of devotion to the Sacred Heart come from an apparition of Christ to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in Paris in the 1670s, when he revealed the love of His Sacred Heart for the world and asked for reparation for the sins of sacrilege and blasphemy.