Secrets of Fatima unveiled

AHIGHLY venerated church event this October is the centennial of the apparition of the Blessed mother in Fatima. Her appearances are commemorated by a group of religious structures, the most important of which is the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima (Portuguese in Cova da Iria, in the parish of Fátima, in the municipality of Ourém, in Portugal.) The others are the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, the Chapel of the Lausperene, a great oak tree (near which the Marian Apparitions occurred), a monument to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Chapel of the Apparitions where three children—Lucia Santos and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco In addition, several other structures and monuments were built in the intervening years to commemorate the events. Across the main sanctuary is the much larger Basilica of the Holy Trinity constructed after 1953, owing to the limited scale of the Sanctuary for large-scale pilgrimages and religious services.

Fatima is considered the most prophetic of the appearances of the Blessed Mother on earth. On this occasion, she sent messages to the world through the young shepherds. These were regarded as “secrets” which referred to the frightening vision of hell, devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Second World War and the prediction of the immense damage Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism.

She was to reappear a few more times before a stunned three young cousins Jacinta and Lucia and Francisco who have since who turned out to be the Blessed Mother, told them of events which must have gone over the heads of the very young shepherds. Unable to comprehend these prophesies, they kept these to themselves. It was not until the church authorities pried these out of their mouths that the universal church learned what these “secrets” were which have all come to pass.

Obviously the Blessed Mother wanted to pass on the faithful the urgency of her messages through these young innocent pastorinhos. What was so urgent was a war that had unleashed the biblical four horsemen of the apocalypse and caught the world in a bloody con were unheard of since the beginning of time. Thirty nations engaged in bloody armed confrontation. Indeed, World War I was also known as the Great War - the war to end all wars which originated in Europe and lasted from 1914 to 1918 killing no less than sixteen million people in its wake. Accordingly, when the Blessed Mother visited the children towards the end of the war, she promised to end it right away on the condition that world would atone for its sins and pray the rosary as often as they could. Miraculously, an armistice which ended the world war was declared a year after.

And what about the conversion of Russia? As a backgrounder, Russia was a great Catholic nation but converted to orthodoxy and later to Communism. There was a sense of urgency because as prophesied by the Virgin Mother, communism would smother part of western Europe, most of eastern Europe and outlying areas in Asia. The lady asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart on First Saturdays. Otherwise, she said that she will spread her errors throughout the world causing wars and persecution of the church. The good she added will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end however, she promised that her Immaculate Heart will triumph; the Holy Father will consecrate Russia to her and she will be converted and a period of peace will be granted to the world.

When President Putin called on the Pope St. John Paul II in the Vatican, I wondered whether this was an occasion described by the secret for the consecration by the Pope of Russia to the Immaculate Conception!

The pastorinhos who did not education took all of these messages into their hearts, keeping them as secrets and but they did as the Virgin had requested them such as the recitation of the holy rosary and other pious practices while making reparations for their sins and offer secrets were elicited from the shepherds, the church wasted no time in mobilizing the whole church to heed the request of the blessed mother which boiled to one thing: atonement, reparation and prayer.

Today, many believe that the third secret, that was believed to be associated with the attempted assassination of the Pope, has come to pass. Fortunately, the Turkish assassin’s bullet directed at the by the hand of the Blessed Mother thus sparing his life. Incidentally, a bullet recovered from the body of the pope is now embedded in the tiara of the Blessed Mother in her altar in Fatima.

Russia has come out of the shadows of the dark past of the Bolshevik revolution which saw the persecution of the Catholic Church. When I see Vladimir Putin worshipping before the icons in Russian orthodox cathedrals and having an audience with the Pope in Rome, I think that perhaps the wish of the Blessed Mother is on

The First World War and the following Russian Bolshevik revolution of March and October 1917 (when the Virgin appeared in Fatima) brought a serious upheaval all over Russia and saw the persecution of Catholics and Christians in general under edicts of the revolutionary government.

Today has seen the rebirth of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church within the Russian federation that claims a membership of some 140,000. Despite many problems and continuing repression by some sectors of Russian society, parishes have arisen in Moscow, St. Petersburg and many other towns in the eastern part. of the Russian Byzantine Catholic Church Exarchs— Leonid and St. John Paul II during a visit to the Ukraine before his death, signifying the fact that the Russian Byzantine-rite Church is in full communion with the Holy See.

visit to the Russian capital, the then Ambassador Alex Melchor and I had to hear mass in the private quarters of a Jesuit priest. Years later, when I joined a trade mission to Moscow, we were so relieved that we could hear mass in one of the imposing parish churches in the soviet capital.

Can all of this be attributed to the Blessed Mother and the seeds of the blood of Russian martyrs? All of the millions who trek to this small quiet town hidden in the hills just outside of Lisbon seem to think so, including this writer.