The Aftermath

The Sunday after Easter, 1935, Father Sopocko had the image displayed over the famous Ostra Brama gate to the city of Vilnius, and in the nearby church he preached the message of mercy to the Catholic populace. Sr. Faustina was given permission to be there too, and towards the end of the service, when the priest took the Blessed Sacrament to bless the people, she saw the Lord Jesus Himself, as He is represented in the Image of Mercy, and Christ Himself gave His blessing, and the rays from His Heart extended over the whole world. The hardest blow, however, came in 1959, when the Vatican, having received erroneous and confusing translations of the Diary, forbade the spreading of the Mercy devotion in the forms proposed by Sr. Faustina. That ban would last a full 20 years. In 1979, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, having received the results of Fr. Rożycki's research, as well as more accurate translations of the Diary, informed the Marian order that the ban on Sr. Faustina's devotion had finally been lifted.