As the site knows, I'm not a fan of Pius XII. Well, I was talking to a friend about how it was Pius XII who sainted Louis De Montfort and this friend, who agreed with me on Pius XII, said "At least he did something right."
Amen. The way this man wrote about Mary was exhilarating. Especially when he calls her "A sealed fountain," meaning God gave her more virtues than anyone else but kept them all almost a secret, because she was so humble... It taps into this feeling of incredible power concealed on Earth, but waiting to burst forth in its full splendor in heaven. You can think of this while meditating on the Coronation.
Sad postscript: This friend, an older gentleman very, very sentimentally attached to Fatima, stopped talking to me apparently because I was skeptical of it. I did not try to convert him to my point of view, which I wasn't sure of at the time anyway -- I'm still not absolutely sure -- and actually did everything I could to avoid the topic. I told him, "Hey, as long as you're aware of all the modern heresies, it can't do any harm to believe in Fatima." ( Because Fatima seems like a distraction when you consider how many people obsess over it yet are oblivious to heresy ).
But he kept hammering away. He got belligerent as heck. First he told me to read about it, so I did, partially reading books in English and French on Google ( probably infringing copyright laws, as I now realize, can't do that anymore! ) Then when I compiled a list of contradictions, and mentioned some of them to him, he kept saying "You haven't read about it, you haven't read about it," telling me I had to read Michel de la Sainte-Trinite, a Vatican II dude. Well, I had read him too, though in abridged form.
Keep in mind I am not one of those who is anti-miracle. I believe that it was really Michael the Archangel who appeared to Joan of Arc. I would even say that I am sure of it. It just rings true in many ways that I'll probably describe later, when I get around to writing my louange à Jeanne D'Arc. ( For a while, I never understood Jeanne D'Arc or why God would care about who won in a war between France and England ).
Fatima does not ring true in the same way. It seems like one link in a chain of hoaxes to me, although some will say that perhaps Medjugorje and Garabandal were attempts by the devil to create anti-Fatimas, to reduce the glory of Fatima... However, all of them have contradictions.
Unfortunately, since last talking to this friend, and since learning from St. Thomas that angels cannot confect the Eucharist as we are meant to believe happened at Fatima, which was the clincher -- because, having the brain of a cop or detective, there were already numerous contradictions I'd found in the story -- I am even more skeptical. Now when I say the Rosary I have replaced the Fatima Prayer with "O Divine Heart of Jesus, grant I pray thee, eternal rest to the souls in purgatory," etc.
What did people say after the Glory Be before 1917, before Fatima?
P.S. Roscoe needs to be banned. He is obstinate and unrepentant with his marijuana schtick, which some probably think is harmlessly amusing but is not. If you want to go deal pot, do it somewhere else, rosc.