In the early days of the Medjugorje apparitions, in October of 1981, Our Lady mysteriously presented to the visionaries a prophecy that would connect Medjugorje to Fatima. Our Lady said: “Russia will come to glorify God the most, the West will make modern progress but without God and will act like their own creator.”
As many of us know, the central theme of the apparitions of Fatima was Russia. ‘Russia will error, Russia must convert, nations will be annihilated, Russia’s heart must be consecrated by the Pope to Our Lady’s Immaculate heart. The significance of Russia with respect to Catholic prophecy at Fatima cannot be overestimated.
Then on August 25, 1991 at Medjugorje Our Lady gave the visionaries perhaps her most revealing message leaving no doubt that Medjugorje and Fatima are connected.
She said: “Dear Children! Today also I invite you to prayer, now as never before when my plan has begun to be realized. Satan is strong and wants to sweep away my plans of peace and joy and make you think that my Son is not strong in His decisions. Therefore, I call all of you, dear children, to pray and fast still more firmly. I invite you to self-renunciation for nine days so that, with your help, everything that I desire to realize through the secrets I began in Fatima, may be fulfilled. I call you, dear children, to now grasp the importance of my coming and the seriousness of the situation. I want to save all souls and present them to God. Therefore, let us pray that everything I have begun will be fully realized.
Fast forward to February 24, 2022. On that day Russia invaded Ukraine claiming that they were protecting the Russian people from the invasion of Western wokism and its secular anti-family values.
Last year, in a combative speech, delivered from the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West was “satanic” and rejected “moral norms”
Putin attacked the West’s liberalism, saying that, unlike Russia, it had turned away from “traditional” and “religious” values.
Putin has claimed Moscow is fighting a holy war against Satan and warned Russia is capable of sending its enemies to hell
In a message marking Russia’s Day of National Unity on November 4, Putin said the task of the fatherland was to “stop the supreme ruler of hell, whatever name he uses — Satan, Lucifer, or Iblis.”
He accused the West of “outright satanism” during a 37-minute tirade at a ceremony announcing the annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
As the risks of nuclear war intensify the Russian president, said “Now they have moved on entirely, to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family …” “The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves.
This is a challenge to all. This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism.”
At the time of the invasion in February 2022, the United States on both the left and the right were united in the idea that Russia was the instigator, the aggressor and that Putin was dangerous and had imperial ambitions towards Europe.
Then seemingly out of nowhere the youngest Senator in the United States Senate, J.D. Vance put forward the controversial idea that Ukraine was not important for the security of the United States and that America should keep a distance from getting involved. J.D. Vance was roundly criticized but then in another surprise move Donald Trump selected the 39 year old Senator to be his Vice-Presidential running mate. It was then that most Americans learned of Mr. Vance’s conversion to Catholicism.
President Trump has stunned Americans and the world with his aggressive use of executive orders to shake up Washington, D.C. and the world.
But perhaps nothing has been so consequential as Donald Trump’s shock announcement that he was ready to bring an end to the Ukraine/Russia war by pretty much accepting Russia’s terms for peace, i.e. no NATO membership for Ukraine and Russia would not have to give back territory to Ukraine that Russia captured during the war.
All of Washington, D.C. and the entire western world has asked why has the Trump administration been so accommodating towards Russia interests.
Clues to the answer to this question can be found J.D. Vance’s speech he gave on February 14, 2025 in Munich in which he criticized western Europe’s secular values.
In the speech in Germany, JD Vance said European governments are suppressing free speech and discriminating against Christians. He urged European leaders to reverse the ongoing crackdown on conservative voices and religious freedoms. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Vance noted that conservatives have been investigated, arrested, prosecuted, or fined for protesting abortion and expressing views on social media. He also criticized attempts to exclude populist parties from political collaboration, arguing that such actions threaten democracy. “I can tell you plainly: There can be no security if you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your own people,” Vance said in Munich. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”
In essence J.D. Vance is as alarmed by Western Europe’s attachment to anti-family and anti-Christian values as is the President of Russia.
Perhaps prophetically, Vance’s concerns about family and faith are directly aligned with the warnings from Fatima visionary Sister Lucia Santos.
Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the three children who witnessed the Marian apparitions at Fatima, died in 2005. But before her death, she predicted that the final battle between Christ and Satan would be over marriage and the family, saying: “The final battle between the Lord and the Kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.
Cardinal Caffarra explained that Saint John Paul II had commissioned him to establish the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. At the beginning of this work, the cardinal wrote a letter to Sister Lucia of Fatima through her bishop, since he could not do it directly.
“Inexplicably, since I did not expect a reply, seeing as I had only asked for her prayers, I received a long letter with her signature, which is now in the archives of the Institute,” the Italian cardinal said.
“In that letter we find written: ‘The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.’ Don’t be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.
Given the seismic shift in the United States’ relationship with Russia and when we contemplate this change within the context of the Fatima prophecies it makes sense to pay close attention to how the negotiations between Russia and the US for peace in Ukraine unfold.
