For more than a century and a half, popes have taught the importance of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here are some highlights:

• 1856: Blessed Pius IX institutes the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart to be celebrated by the whole Church on the Friday after Corpus Christi.

• May 25, 1899: Leo XIII writes his encyclical Annum Sacrum (On Consecration to the Sacred Heart). He decrees and instructs bishops that the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus take place June 11,1899, and includes a “Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart.”

“In that Sacred Heart all our hopes should be placed, and from it the salvation of men is to be confidently besought,” he wrote. He called the consecration “the greatest act of my pontificate.”

“And since there is in the Sacred Heart a symbol and a sensible image of the infinite love of Jesus Christ which moves us to love one another, therefore is it fit and proper that we should consecrate ourselves to His most Sacred Heart.”

• May 13, 1920: Benedict XV encourages the Nine First Fridays devotion in honor of the Sacred Heart as a practice of this act of reparation as he canonizes St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

• May 8, 1928: Pius XI writes the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation to the Sacred Heart). He stated: “[A]ssuredly among those things which properly pertain to the worship of the Most Sacred Heart, a special place must be given to that Consecration, whereby we devote ourselves and all things that are ours to the Divine Heart of Jesus, acknowledging that we have received all things from the everlasting love of God.”

• May 15, 1956: Venerable Pius XII writes his encyclical Haurietis Aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pius IX’s institution of the feast.

He wrote, “We do not hesitate to declare that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the most effective school of the love of God.” He added, “[L]et the faithful see to it that to this devotion the Immaculate Heart of the Mother of God is closely joined. For, by God’s Will, in carrying out the work of human Redemption the Blessed Virgin Mary was inseparably linked with Christ in such a manner that our salvation sprang from the love and the sufferings of Jesus Christ to which the love and sorrows of His Mother were intimately united.”

• May 15, 2006: Pope Benedict XVI, for the 50th anniversary of Pius XII’s encyclical, reaffirms, “It is consequently important to stress that the basis of the devotion is as old as Christianity itself.”

• Oct. 24, 2024: Francis releases his encyclical Dilexit Nos (On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ) addressing devotion to the Sacred Heart in today’s world. “Devotion to Christ’s heart is essential for our Christian life to the extent that it expresses our openness in faith and adoration to the mystery of the Lord’s divine and human love. In this sense, we can once more affirm that the Sacred Heart is a synthesis of the Gospel.”