Fatima remains a miracle
Do divine interventions in history belong only to the biblical period, and then only as fantastic tales intended to make a general point? Or do they accompany us through history?
This Saturday, May 13, the Catholic world will mark the centenary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to three shepherd children at Fatima, Portugal. Pope Francis will travel to Fatima for the celebrations, during which he will declare two of the children, who died early, to be saints. ( The third lived to be 97 and died in 2005; the examination of her life for possible canonization is still underway.)
The Catholic Church is extremely cautious about claims that Jesus or Mary has appeared somewhere, but is open to the possibility. After rigorous investigation, most such claims are dismissed, but some are approved as authentic. The Fatima apparitions are in the latter category, and have enjoyed papal favour. Pope Paul VI visited Fatima on the 50th anniversary in 1967; John Paul II went three times; Ben- edict XVI visited in 2010, and now Francis.
St. John Paul II had a particular link to Fatima. He was shot on May 13, 1981 — the liturgical feast day of Our Lady of Fatima — at pointblank range by a professional assassin. He would later comment that “one hand fired the gun, another guided the bullet” — expressing his belief that Mary had saved him from certain death. Hence he went to Fatima on the first and tenth anniversaries of the shooting to give thanks for his life being spared and his ministry continuing.
At Fatima the three children reported that the “Lady” of the apparitions spoke to them about world events of which they would have known nothing: the first world war then raging, the second world war yet to come, the rise of communism first in Russia and then globally. For that reason the Catholic struggle against communism was often associated with prayers asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima.
The assassination attempt of May 13, 1981, linked the Fatima apparitions with the great vanquisher from behind the Iron Curtain, John Paul II. The peaceful defeat of communism was foreseen by no one, that the great evil empire would not only be defeated but dismantled, erased from the map of Europe. Was this not an intervention by God in our time, akin to the great victories won by the children of Israel over their enemies — Moses over Amalek, Joshua at Jericho, David over Goliath?
For those with the eyes of faith, it is easy to see divine providence at work. For those who only see material forces at work in history, first premises exclude that possibility. Consider though a middle case, that of Vaclav Havel, not a Christian believer but a man open to the spirit. The dissident who led the 1989 Velvet Revolution welcomed John Paul to Prague in April 1990 as the first president of a free Czechoslovakia.
“I do not know whether I know what a miracle is,” Havel said. “Nonetheless, I dare say I am party to a miracle now: the messenger of love comes into the country devastated by the ideology of hatred; the living symbol of civilization comes into the country devastated by the rule of the uncivilized. For long decades, spirit has been chased out from our homeland. I have the honour to be a witness to the moment when its soil is being kissed by the apostle of spirituality.”
Not unusually for Marian apparitions, Fatima was accompanied by miraculous signs. There were of course skeptics aplenty, thinking that the children were delusional or seeking publicity. The anti- clerical municipal authorities arrested the children and interrogated them, threatening them with torture by boiling oil and death. The children remained steadfast, a model for the millions of faithful who would be persecuted by the state out of hatred for God.
The Virgin Mary told the children that she would provide a sign at the last apparition on October 13, 1917. Some 70,000 people gathered in a downpour. After the apparition, which only the children could see, the “Miracle of the Sun” occurred, where the sun appeared to change colours and “dance” in the sky. After it concluded, everyone was suddenly dry. The miracle was covered the secular newspapers, perhaps the first miracle to be witnessed by tens of thousands in the media age.
Miracles provoke disputes as those who a priori rule them impossible cannot accept them. Specific miracles are not as important though as the more profound conviction that God is at work in history. On Saturday in Fatima, Pope Francis will renew that conviction on behalf of Catholics the world over.