Thousands of Catholics gathered in Carfin, south-east of Glasgow, on Sunday as Scottish bishops carried out the Consecration of Scotland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At the Carfin Grotto, the bishops prayed: “We consecrate Scotland to you: all that we have, all that we love, all that we are. To you we give our minds and hearts, our bodies and souls. “We willingly place at your service our homes and our families, our parishes and schools: we desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to you, O Mary, and may share in the benefits of your motherly care.” They also promised “to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to the service of your blessed name, in order to assure, through the sovereignty of your Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of your adorable Son Jesus Christ, in our own hearts and in our country of Scotland.” Bishop John Keenan of Paisley told the Catholic Herald that the laity had begun the initiative for the consecration: they had sent “continual letters” asking that Scotland be consecrated, as other countries have been, in the centenary year of the Fatima apparitions. The bishop said: “The Scottish bishops called upon a heavenly power to confront the powers of evil that threaten the Gospel in these turbulent times of aggressive secularism, confusing relativism and energy-sapping consumerism … From today onwards that battle, at least in Scotland, is now Our Lady’s as well as our own.” Four parliamentarians lodged a motion calling on the Scottish Parliament to recognise the Consecration.