I usually don't get involved in eschatological predictions, but of late I've seen otherwise faithful Catholics who seem to believe 2017 will be a significant year/end of the world event(s)

Why? Is this just my corner of the world or is this a "thing" amongst 'trads'?

-Is it because that's a Fatima anniversary?
--Because it's the anniversary of the communist revolution?
-Was it because of Fr. Malachi Martin's statement about 2017 and the third secret?
-- Is it some other private revelation?

Where is this coming from?

31 October 2017 is the 500th anniversary since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg.

Bergoglio and his church has already announced that they are making big plans to celebrate this event.  What they will be doing is still unknown outside the inner circles of the Vatican, but I believe there will be rejoicing, celebrations, a docuмent signed with Lutherans allowing intercommunion between Conciliar Catholics and Lutherans, and probably Martin Luther's canonization.

There are a few very significant anniversaries in 2017...

100 years since Fatima (1917).

100 years since the Communist revolution in Russia (1917).

500 years since Luther's Theses (1517).

300 years since the founding of modern Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ (1717).

This comes from a tradition of false profecy where they say that the world is comeing to an end. the world was predicted to be coming to an end in 1846. People sold their hiomes, businesses, and farms so that they could prepare for the end of the world. 1846 came and went. The year of impending doom gets put back every few yers as the old year of doom comes and goes. I remember when the world was supposed to end in 2000. Later on the world was supposed to end in 2012. Now that 2012 is well past us they have to come up with something else. 2017 sounds as good as anything else.  

31 October 2017 is the 500th anniversary since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenburg.

Bergoglio and his church has already announced that they are making big plans to celebrate this event.  What they will be doing is still unknown outside the inner circles of the Vatican, but I believe there will be rejoicing, celebrations, a docuмent signed with Lutherans allowing intercommunion between Conciliar Catholics and Lutherans, and probably Martin Luther's canonization.

Not to defend Francis, but it should be noted that this was in the works since Benedict was pope. And by that I mean the celebration and marking of the anniversary. Let's hope the darker scenario you envision does not come to pass.

Not sure of what is meant in scripture about paying attention to the signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, but this man's work makes some interesting connections to sacred astronomy.  Especially with another blood moon coming up on April 5th.

1517 is the date of the Reformation of Luther. The enrolment of the Socinians and the first Protestant jubilee were in 1617.  In 1717 was the first manifestation of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ the antichristian sect, a manifestation and not a creation.

Something must have happened in 1817, anyone know?http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1817

Fatima 1917.

It is hoped something more Christian will happen in 2017. But only God knows the future.

You often have 100 years to obey:
https://veneremurcernui.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/third-secret-of-fatima-and-the-failure-to-consecrate-france-to-the-sacred-heart/

Many faithful Catholics feel – for many reasons, and it’s certainly a strong point of contention – that Our Lady’s command to consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart has never been properly fulfilled.  Yes, there have been consecrations, but they did not follow the formula or include all the elements Our Lady expressed at Fatima.Louis_XIV_(Mignard)

I use that comment as an introduction to another, strikingly similar situation, which is Our Lord’s communication to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that the sovereign of France – at that time, Louis XIV – must explicitly consecrate France to His Sacred Heart and take other certain steps as evidence of that consecration (such as building a national basilica explicitly dedicated to the Sacred Heart, seeking permission for a national Feast to the Sacred Heart, etc).  Saint Margaret Mary inveighed upon her superiors in the Order of the Visitation to contact Louis XIV to inform him of this command, and the evidence strongly suggests this contact was made, repeatedly.  But Louis XIV never acted.  For whatever reason, whether want of faith, concern over the prudence of the matter, belief that the time was not yet “ripe” since the apparitions had at that point not been formally endorsed by the Church…….the consecration never occurred.  It never occurred during Louis XV’s time, either.download (8)

So, over 100 years passed, and the fearful vengeance of Our Blessed Lord then fell upon France and the monarchy in the form of the French Revolution.  The Church was persecuted as never before in a Catholic country.  Satanic acts were everywhere, the faithful suffered horribly, and the plight endured by priests and religious was unspeakable.  Our Lord had informed Saint Margaret Mary that things would not go well for France if His command was not obeyed. There was a special inference to the destruction of the monarchy, should those given such awesome power and privilege by the Hand of God would not be obedient to His demand.  And even on a strictly human level, the fact that the Faith had grown so distorted under generations of Gallicanism and the baleful influence of Jansenism, where a cold, sterile, and crushing legalism sucked the lifeblood of the Church (charity) away, without a visible commitment to re-center the Church in the living seat of Our Lord’s loving Heart, the mass practice of the Faith in France was in a perilous state, anyway.  More and more souls developed a resentment towards the hard, unyielding demands of Jansenist priests and bishops, and in their ardor, turned away from the very Church Herself.  All that was needed was a spark to start a conflagration that would threaten to consume the execlouisentire Church in France, and very nearly did.

The third heir of this command from Our Lord, King Louis XVI, was of course swept along by events.  Far from a great king, he was also far from a bad man.  Languishing in prison awaiting his inevitable execution, Louis XVI poured out his heart to Our Lord in the form of a promissory note, wherein Louis took the solemn vow to finally consecrate France to Our Lord’s Sacred Heart should he be restored as sovereign of France.  This note promised satisfaction of all Our Lord’s demands, including the formal consecration in union with bishops and Pope, the establishment of a national feast to the Sacred Heart on the First Friday after the Octave of the Blessed Sacrament, public processions imploring forgiveness of the Sacred Heart, the repudiation and removal of all the terribly repressive acts taken against the Church by the revolutionary government, annual renewal of the consecration, the construction of a basilica to the Sacred Heart, etc.  In short, every detail of Our Lord’s revelation to St. Margaret Mary was to be satisfied.

Sadly, it was too late.  100 years to the day had been given to satisfy this “request,” and it had not occurred. On June 17, 1789, the all-powerful monarchy ruling France was terminated, forever.  Louis XVI promised to make a consecration in 1791 while imprisoned, but he had no power to put that promise into effect.  So he died, as did so many others, and the Revolution continued on its course until it consumed its own and was replaced with a tyranny – a tyranny that then not only afflicted France, but almost all of Europe, and spread France’s errors around the world.

Since that time, Saint Margaret Mary has been canonized, a national basilica to the Sacred Heart constructed, but still, there has been – to my Sacred Heart-1knowledge – no consecration.  Of course, there is no longer to perform such an act, but even the various democratic (and not) governments which have ruled France since the Revolution have not taken such an act in the name of the people.  The closest this came to occurring was when a small subset of the National Assembly informally embraced the Sacred Heart at a major pilgrimage to Paray, the location of the convent where St. Margaret Mary Alacoque lived and where her relics remain today.  That act seems to have been incomplete.

It struck me when reading about this in The Life of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque that this failure to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart represents, in microcosm (as a quite literal type), the situation surrounding Our Lady’s command that Russian be consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart.  In both cases, in spite of continuing arguments, it seems that this direct command has not been obeyed, or not observed in all its critical details, and that the disasters promised to come in the wake of a failure to obey have indeed happened.  The Church in France, after enjoying a brief resurgence in the 1800s, is as secularized and moribund as any in the world today, especially in its institutions.  A pretty strong argument could ThirdSecretbe constructed that what happened to France is now occurring to the Church throughout the world, as the “errors of Russia” (shorthand for leftism generally) spread and even inculcate themselves in the Church, as we see the Church suffering more and more egregious persecutions and as more and more souls grow cold, disinterested, and even fall away from the Faith.  Our Lady has repeatedly warned of a diabolical disorientation in the Church’s hierarchy and grave disasters that will afflict the world if the Church does not take some great leap of Faith, if Her leadership does not turn away from worldly considerations and plainly, simply obey Her command.

The price of failure in both consecrations was prophesied to be mass suffering on a natural and supernatural level, suffering unprecedented in the life of the Church.

Such has already occurred in France. Must it occur in the world at large, as well?

Some fascinating (and frightening) details on the above:

At Rianjo, Spain in August 1931, Our Lord communicated to Sister Lucy His dissatisfaction with the Pope’s and the Catholic bishops’ failure to obey His command to consecrate Russia. He said:

Make it known to My ministers, given that they follow the example of the King of France in delaying the execution of My requests, they will follow him into misfortune. It is never too late to have recourse to Jesus and Mary.

The reference by Jesus to the King of France’s disobedience and punishment is as follows:

On June 17, 1689 the Sacred Heart of Jesus manifested to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque His command to the King of France that the King was to consecrate France to the Sacred Heart. For 100 years to the day the Kings of France delayed, and did not obey.

So on June 17, 1789 the King of France was stripped of his legislative authority by the upstart Third Estate, and four years later the soldiers of the French Revolution executed the King of France as if he were a criminal.

In 1793 France sent its King, Louis XVI, to the guillotine. He and his predecessors had failed to obey Our Lord’s request that France be consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and thus misfortune had befallen both the King and his country.