Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => The Sacred: Catholic Liturgy, Chant, Prayers => Topic started by: poche on May 08, 2017, 11:28:25 PM
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It’s the most popular and well-known Marian apparition in the recent history of the Church.
One hundred years ago, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in a field in Fatima, Portugal. She brought with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.
Every local bishop since has approved the apparitions and deemed them worthy of belief, the highest recognition a Marian apparition can receive from the Church.
Miracle researcher Michael O’Neill told CNA that the Fatima apparitions (http://miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/fatima/index.html) could be considered the “gold standard of Marian apparitions.”
“It has everything you’ve ever wanted to look for in a Marian apparition. It’s got these secrets, the prophecies, visionaries that will be canonized... you also have a feast day in the general Roman calendar, the approval of the local bishop, and of every pope afterwards, you have the canonization of the visionaries and the basilica that was built, so all the hallmarks of a Marian apparition are there,” he said. O’Neill records the details of Fatima, other Marian apparitions and all things miraculous on his site, miraclehunter.com (http://miraclehunter.com/).
This year, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the apparition site on May 12-13, the 100th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. The visit will include the canonizations of two of the child visionaries, who died just a few years after the visions.
But even though it’s been 100 years, “the messages of Fatima are as relevant today as they were in 1917,” O’Neill said.
“The essence of the message is a call to conversion, and that’s something that’s as important in our life in modern times as it was when Mary appeared in 1917. I think this 100 year anniversary is a great opportunity for us to revisit the devotion and to re-incorporate it into our lives today.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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Historical context
In 1917, the country of Portugal, like most of the rest of the world, was at war.
As World War I raged throughout Europe, Portugal found itself unable to maintain its initial neutrality and joined forces with the Allies, in order to protect colonies in Africa and to defend their trade with Britain. About 220,000 Portuguese civilians died during the war; thousands due to food shortages, thousands more from the Spanish flu.
Besides the hardships of war, Catholics in the country were also facing a strong wave of anti-clericalism.
Begun in the 18th century during the term of statesman Marquês de Pombal, anti-Catholicism reared its head again after the establishment of the Portuguese First Republic in 1910.
Catholic churches and schools were seized by the government, and the wearing of clerics in public, the ringing of church bells, and the celebrating of popular religious festivals were banned. Between 1911-1916, nearly 2,000 priests, monks and nuns were killed by anti-Christian groups.
This was the Portugal the Blessed Virgin Mary entered into when she appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima in 1917, delivering messages about war, peace, suffering, and conversion.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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An angel announces Mary’s coming
In the summer of 1916, Lucia dos Santos, the youngest of a family of seven children, began shepherding her family’s flock along with three of her friends, Teresa Matias and her sister Maria Rosa, and Maria Justino. During this time, an angelic figure appeared before the girls three different times as they were praying the rosary in the fields, but did not speak to them. Lucia’s mother dismissed the incident as “childish nonsense.”
Some time later, Lucia was shepherding with her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. One day, eager to play, the children sped through their lunchtime rosary by saying only the titles of the prayers on each bead.
Shortly after they began to play a game, an angelic figure appeared, this time speaking to the children. Over three different appearances, he asked the children to pray and sacrifice. He told them he was the “Guardian Angel of Portugal,” and informed them that Jesus and Mary had “plans of mercy” for them. On the last visit, he gave the children Holy Communion.
“That is pretty unique,” O’Neill said. “There have been thousands of accounts of angels appearing on their own; it’s a rare thing when they come to trumpet the coming of Mary.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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The first appearance of Mary
The next year, on May 5, 1917, Pope Benedict XV wrote a pastoral letter (http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xv/it/letters/1917/docuмents/hf_ben-xv_let_19170505_regina-pacis.html) to the world, asking the faithful to petition Mary to bring an end to the war, “that her most tender and benign solicitude may be moved and the peace we ask for be obtained for our agitated world.”
Eight days later, Mary appeared for the first time, on May 13, to three shepherd children - Lucia, 10 years old, and her two cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, 9 and 7 years old, respectively.
She appeared as “a lady dressed all in white, more brilliant than the sun” on top of a small tree in an open field called the Cova de Iria (The Cove of Irene) in the countryside of the small but faithful town of Fatima, and she asked that the children come back to that same spot on the 13th day of the next month.
While she did not reveal her full name right away, the lady did tell the children: “I am of Heaven.” When asked, she promised that all three of the children would go to heaven, though Francisco would have to say “many rosaries” in order to get there.
Aside from the three children, no one was present during the first apparition; but as word spread, the crowds would grow.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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The second apparition: the children’s fate
For the second apparition on June 13, dozens of onlookers testified that they were able to see a cloud above the tree where the children saw Mary. This time, she showed the children her Immaculate Heart, pierced with thorns representing the sins of mankind.
Lucia asked Mary for the healing of a sick person, which Mary said would be granted with his conversion. Lucia again asked Mary to take the children to heaven, and while Mary promised to take Jacinta and Francisco soon, she told Lucia that she must stay on earth “some time longer.”
“Jesus wishes to make use of you to make me known and loved,” Mary told her. “He wants to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. I promise salvation to those who embrace it, and those souls will be loved by God like flowers placed by me to adorn His throne.”
The children kept the revelation of the image of the Immaculate Heart secret for some time, until Lucia became a nun. Mary again asked the children to return on the 13th day of the next month.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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You missed a few points:
#1. The miracle of the sun, predicted in advance and witnessed by 70,000 people, was the most spectacular prodigy since Pentecost. This really does not need approval by the Church. If devils can work signs like that, I for one, would raise a white flag. Heroic Francesco, who had more common sense than all the Popes since Gregory XVI, and Little Jacinta, who had more sanctity than anybody in the 20th Century with the possible exception of Padre Pio, were canonized by Our Lady in 1917. Glad to see what is left of Holy Mother Church finally got around to acknowledging that fact. We can only hope it is a portent of things to come, but I would sooner expect white wolves to start intoning Gregorian chants than for pope frantic to do anything Catholic, but there are such things as miracles.
#2. Our Lady said that in order to save souls, God requested devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. This was not given to us by the Pope of Catholic Inaction, Pius XI, or the Roosevelt's Pope, Pius XII, or Good Pope John, and, of course, it's all downhill from there. Our Lady is not optional. Our Lady is the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Spouse of The Holy Ghost. Whatever we can imagine God to be, the reality of Our Lady is greater. (I am not saying Our Lady is God, to all you peabrains out there. :fryingpan:.)
#3. Our Lady asked us to make the five first Saturdays in reparation for blasphemy, to offer our daily duties up to God, and above all, to say our Rosary daily.
#4. Our Lady warned that "various nations will be annihilated. Various sounds like more than a few rinky-dink blotches of real estate college students could not find on a map, like Socotra. Various nations probably has the USA, originator of 85% of the world's pornography, at the top of the list.
#5. Jacinta saw "all those roads and fields full of people, crying because they had nothing to eat.." Some say this was the French fleeing Hitler's armies or the Ukraine under Stalin. I think this is a coming attraction for the world, of which Greece, Libya, and Venezuela are sneak previews. World crops are being decimated by "solar radiation management", the oceans are dying, with floods of dead fish washing up on beaches almost daily.
#6. Our Lady said the world would be punished by war, famine, and persecutions of the Holy Father...
The bottom line here is that Fatima is not optional. "Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of goodness, but without paying mind to this Message. The bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement already falling on them presently; they also continue on their path of badness, ignoring the Message. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way. "
The above is a quote from Sr Lucia's interview with Fr Augustine Fuentes, before she was murdered in 1958 or '59...
The sea is rising inch by inch, rain bombs are becoming more frequent...
And don't even get me started on the fact that WW1 was a dog-and-pony show with the only lasting result that the last Catholic monarchy, the Hapsburgs, was destroyed (not that Franz Josef didn't ask for it, but that's a whole 'nother story...).
(But some people still really do believe the Zimmerman note was authentic. They really do believe that a nation that could not get its navy toys past the British blockade was going to steam to Mexico in battleships that could not have made it half way across the Atlantic and deliver an army that was going to invade Texas. And of course Zimmerman could not fly directly to Mexico City but had to stop in New York, and of course the papers were written in English even though German's speak German and Mexicans speak Spanish. Of course, 50% of Americans would... no, I'm not going to say it.)
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us, you are our only hope.
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The third apparition: The Great Secret is given
On July 13, Mary revealed what has been come to be known as the “Great Secret” of Fatima, a secret that Lucia divided into three parts and slowly revealed to the public over time. Two parts of the secret were revealed in 1941, when Lucia was asked to record her memoirs by the local bishop. The rest was not revealed until the year 2000, per Mary’s instructions, initially, and then later instructions of the Holy See.
Mary also told the children to continue praying the rosary daily, and to come back to the same spot on the same day of the next month. When Lucia asked the lady to reveal her identity, she again promised the children that she would reveal herself fully in October, and perform a miracle on that day “for all to see and believe.”
She also asked the children to help sinners: “Sacrifice yourself for sinners, and say many times, especially whenever you make some sacrifice: O my Jesus, it is for love of Thee, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
The growing crowds who came with the children to see the apparition witnessed several things during this apparition. Many were able to hear a faint, indescribable sound, believed to be Mary’s voice. Witnesses also recounted a change in atmosphere - when the Lady appeared the sky darkened, and the humid, hot summer air of Portugal suddenly became cool and pleasant.
The crowd also heard a large clap of thunder that shook the ground at the time of Mary’s departure.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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You missed a few points:
#1. The miracle of the sun, predicted in advance and witnessed by 70,000 people, was the most spectacular prodigy since Pentecost. This really does not need approval by the Church. If devils can work signs like that, I for one, would raise a white flag. Heroic Francesco, who had more common sense than all the Popes since Gregory XVI, and Little Jacinta, who had more sanctity than anybody in the 20th Century with the possible exception of Padre Pio, were canonized by Our Lady in 1917. Glad to see what is left of Holy Mother Church finally got around to acknowledging that fact. We can only hope it is a portent of things to come, but I would sooner expect white wolves to start intoning Gregorian chants than for pope frantic to do anything Catholic, but there are such things as miracles.
#2. Our Lady said that in order to save souls, God requested devotion to Her Immaculate Heart. This was not given to us by the Pope of Catholic Inaction, Pius XI, or the Roosevelt's Pope, Pius XII, or Good Pope John, and, of course, it's all downhill from there. Our Lady is not optional. Our Lady is the Daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and the Spouse of The Holy Ghost. Whatever we can imagine God to be, the reality of Our Lady is greater. (I am not saying Our Lady is God, to all you peabrains out there. :fryingpan:.)
#3. Our Lady asked us to make the five first Saturdays in reparation for blasphemy, to offer our daily duties up to God, and above all, to say our Rosary daily.
#4. Our Lady warned that "various nations will be annihilated. Various sounds like more than a few rinky-dink blotches of real estate college students could not find on a map, like Socotra. Various nations probably has the USA, originator of 85% of the world's pornography, at the top of the list.
#5. Jacinta saw "all those roads and fields full of people, crying because they had nothing to eat.." Some say this was the French fleeing Hitler's armies or the Ukraine under Stalin. I think this is a coming attraction for the world, of which Greece, Libya, and Venezuela are sneak previews. World crops are being decimated by "solar radiation management", the oceans are dying, with floods of dead fish washing up on beaches almost daily.
#6. Our Lady said the world would be punished by war, famine, and persecutions of the Holy Father...
The bottom line here is that Fatima is not optional. "Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of goodness, but without paying mind to this Message. The bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement already falling on them presently; they also continue on their path of badness, ignoring the Message. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way. "
The above is a quote from Sr Lucia's interview with Fr Augustine Fuentes, before she was murdered in 1958 or '59...
The sea is rising inch by inch, rain bombs are becoming more frequent...
And don't even get me started on the fact that WW1 was a dog-and-pony show with the only lasting result that the last Catholic monarchy, the Hapsburgs, was destroyed (not that Franz Josef didn't ask for it, but that's a whole 'nother story...).
(But some people still really do believe the Zimmerman note was authentic. They really do believe that a nation that could not get its navy toys past the British blockade was going to steam to Mexico in battleships that could not have made it half way across the Atlantic and deliver an army that was going to invade Texas. And of course Zimmerman could not fly directly to Mexico City but had to stop in New York, and of course the papers were written in English even though German's speak German and Mexicans speak Spanish. Of course, 50% of Americans would... no, I'm not going to say it.)
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us, you are our only hope.
There is so much to say about Fatima that I could never cover it in just one post.
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The fourth apparition: the kidnapping
With anti-Catholic sentiment still prevalent in the country, the mayor in the district of Fatima had grown suspicious of the growingly popular apparitions, and had unsuccessfully tried to get the children to renounce their story.
Wanting to stop the children from seeing the fourth apparition, Artur Santos, an apostate Catholic and high Mason who was the local mayor, offered the children and their parents a ride in his car to the Cova on August 13. However, he devised a ruse to abandon the parents and to take the children alone to the district headquarters in Vila Nova de Ourem, about 9 miles away. Despite bribes, threats of death by burning oil, and threatening to lock them in a cell with criminals, the children never recanted their story.
Frustrated, and fearing retaliation from the faithful who had grown to love the apparitions, the mayor had the children taken back to Fatima after two days, much to the relief of their parents.
Mary then appeared briefly to the children privately a few days later, repeating her request to pray the rosary daily for the reparation of sins, and asking them to come back on the 13th of the next month.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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Francis covered all we need to know in one "post":
"Great injustice is done to God’s grace whenever we say that sins are punished by his judgment, without first saying – as the Gospel clearly does – that they are forgiven by his mercy! Mercy has to be put before judgment and, in any case, God’s judgment will always be rendered in the light of his mercy. Obviously, God’s mercy does not deny justice, for Jesus took upon himself the consequences of our sin, together with its due punishment. He did not deny sin, but redeemed it on the cross. Hence, in the faith that unites us to the cross of Christ, we are freed of our sins; we put aside all fear and dread, as unbefitting those who are loved"
The time of mercy is now. After we die it will be the time of justice.
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The fifth apparition: a pillar of clouds and a shower of flowers
Rather than discourage onlookers, the kidnapping incident in August led to an even greater crowd for the September apparition. This time, the visible signs of Mary’s presence became even more pronounced to the crowd. Several witnesses said they were able to see a globe of light, and then a pillar of cloud about 16 feet high by the tree where Mary always appeared.
Many onlookers also described a shower of small white objects - thought to be snowflakes or rose petals - that fell from the sky but disappeared before they touched the ground.
Mary again repeated her promise to the children that she would come again next month and tell the children who she was and what she wanted, and that she would perform a miracle “so that all may see and believe.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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The final apparition: the Miracle of the Sun
On October 13, 1917, the crowds of witnesses had grown to 70,000 - faithful and skeptics alike gathered for what would be the last Marian apparition to the children in the Cova, eager to see the sign from heaven that Mary had promised.
The crowds started to gather at 11:30, not realizing that Mary would appear at solar noon, rather than at noon according to local time. The children, however, knew when to expect Mary, and arrived at 1:00 p.m., shortly before 1:30 (solar noon) when Mary would appear.
As many witnesses described, a steady rain fell on the night of October 12 through the morning of the 13th. The freshly-plowed ground of the field of the Cova was transformed into a muddy wet mess, through which the crowds plodded and waited in waning hope for something miraculous to occur.
Dr. Joseph Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University, was present for the miracle of the sun and wrote down his eyewitness account, included in the book “Fatima in Lucia’s own Words: The Memoirs of Sister Lucia.”
Because he had arrived too early to the scene, expecting the miracle at noon by the clock instead of by the sun, he waited in the shelter of his car, “looking rather disdainfully towards the place where they said the apparition would be seen, not daring to step on the sodden and muddy earth of the freshly-ploughed field.”
Finally, at about half-past one, a pillar of smoke rose up and disappeared repeatedly at the spot where the children were. The clouds indicated Mary’s arrival, and once she came, Lucia asked the lady what she wanted.
Mary again repeated her request for daily rosaries, and asked that a chapel be built at the apparition site honoring the Lady of the Rosary, which she revealed to the children as her identity. She also promised that the war would soon end and the soldiers would return home. She said she would heal some of the people the children had recommended, but said that people must “amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins.”
The Lady of the Rosary then departed, Lucia recounted, and reappeared to the children, first with Joseph and the child Jesus, and then dressed as Mary under different titles – namely, Our Lady of Sorrows, and then Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
Then, Mary “cast her own light upon the sun.” The rain stopped, the clouds dispersed and the sky cleared, catching the attention of onlookers.
What happened next has been described as the “miracle of the sun” or “the time the sun danced.”
“We looked easily at the sun, which did not blind us. It seemed to flicker on and off, first one way and then another. It shot rays in different directions and painted everything in different colors...What was most extraordinary is that the sun did not hurt our eyes at all. Everything was still and quiet; everyone was looking upwards…” recalled Ti Marto, the father of visionaries Jacinta and Francisco Marto.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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O Dia, the newspaper (https://www.ewtn.com/fatima/sixth-apparition-of-our-lady.asp) in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, reported that “at midday by the sun, the rain stopped. The sky, pearly grey in color, illuminated the vast arid landscape with a strange light. The sun had a transparent gauzy veil so that the eye could easily be fixed on it. The grey mother-of-pearl tone turned into a sheet of silver which broke up as the clouds were parted and the silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and turn in the circle of broken clouds. A cry went up from every mouth and people fell on their knees in the muddy ground…”
Even O Seculo, an anti-Catholic, Masonic newspaper in Lisbon, reported the miracle of the sun from the perspective of the paper’s editor-in-chief, Avelino de Almedia, who witnessed the miracle for himself.
“...one could see the immense multitude turn toward the sun, which appeared at its zenith, coming out of the clouds,” he wrote.
“Before their dazzled eyes the sun trembled, the sun made unusual and brusque movements, defying all the laws of the cosmos, and according to the typical expression of the peasants, ‘the sun danced’.”
Dr. Garrett added that the sun seemed “to be a living body...It looked like a glazed wheel made of mother-of-pearl.” He also recalled a moment when the sun whirled “wildly, seemed to loosen itself from the firmament and advance threateningly upon the earth, as if to crush us with its huge and fiery weight. The sensation during those moments was terrible.”
Numerous witnesses corroborated the phenomenon of the whirling, dancing colorful sun which at one moment seemed to be terrifyingly plunging toward earth, with the crowds “expecting the end of the world to come at any moment” one witness reported. After that moment, the once-soggy and muddy crowd discovered that they were completely dry.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
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The secrets of Fatima
While Mary revealed what came to be known as The Great Secret of Fatima during her third apparition to the shepherd children, it was kept from the public for quite some time, according to instructions from Mary. Sr. Lucia revealed the first two secrets in a memoir in 1941, which had been written at the request of the local bishop at the time. Lucia wrote six memoirs during her lifetime – the first four were written between 1935 and 1941; the English translation was published under the name Fatima in Lucia's Own Words.
The first secret was the vision of hell that Mary had allowed the children to see.
As Sr. Lucia wrote in her memoir: “Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/ (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/)
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God is one, and (according to St Thomas as well) His Justice and His Mercy are the same thing. We call the Sacred Heart a Burning Furnace of Charity. It is, and those are the same fires that torment the damned. Everything depends on us; that is why Our Lady showed hell to the three children. She knew the mercy of God would be abused.
The shower of flower petals you mentioned during the apparition in August occurred many times during the "Great Return" when the Pilgrim Virgin went on pilgrimage throughout Europe. Millions of people saw this and the doves. (Which is why doves are often seen at the base of replicas of the Pilgrim Virgin.)
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The second secret was a statement that World War I would end, and a prediction of another war that would start during the reign of Pius XI, if people continued to offend God and if Russia were not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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As Sr. Lucia recalled in her memoirs, Our Lady said: “You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pope Pius XI. When you see a night illumined by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the Consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Sr. Lucia believed that an aurora borealis, which appeared in the sky on January 25, 1938, was the “unknown light” to which Mary had referred. The celestial phenomenon could be seen throughout Europe and as far south as Australia, and across the Atlantic to Bermuda and parts of the United States.
Shortly thereafter, Germany annexed Austria, and Japan had already invaded China in 1937. While the European portion of World War II is generally held by Western scholars to have officially started on September 1, 1939, under the reign of Venerable Pius XII, in many ways it was already begun under the reign of Pius XI, as Mary predicted.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Sr. Lucia did not record the third part of the secret in her 1941 memoirs, because she said that Mary had not yet permitted her to reveal it to the world.
However, Sr. Lucia fell seriously ill in 1943. Fearing her death before the third part of the secret was ever revealed, the local bishop asked that she write it down, which she did out of obedience. Sr. Lucia wrote the secret in January 1944, put it in an envelope and sealed it, asking that it not be opened until 1960, at which time she believed the meaning of the message would be clearer, or until she died, whichever came first.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The envelope remained at the bishop’s office until 1957, at which time it was delivered to the Vatican, despite Lucia’s requests that it remain with the bishop.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The secret was not revealed until the year 2000 – 40 years after Sr. Lucia thought it might be released – under the direction of the Holy See.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then the Vatican Secretary of State, announced that on May 13, 2000, 83 years after the first apparition, the Third Secret would finally be published. He said the secret referred to the 20th century persecution of Christians and the failed assassination attempt on St. John Paul II on May 13, 1981, the 64th anniversary of the first apparition.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The text of the third secret was published by the Vatican (http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/docuмents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html) on June 26, 2000:
“After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendour that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: 'Penance, Penance, Penance!'. And we saw in an immense light that is God: 'something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White 'we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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It’s the most popular and well-known Marian apparition in the recent history of the Church.
One hundred years ago, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in a field in Fatima, Portugal. She brought with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.
Every local bishop since has approved the apparitions and deemed them worthy of belief, the highest recognition a Marian apparition can receive from the Church.
Miracle researcher Michael O’Neill told CNA that the Fatima apparitions (http://miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/approved_apparitions/fatima/index.html) could be considered the “gold standard of Marian apparitions.”
“It has everything you’ve ever wanted to look for in a Marian apparition. It’s got these secrets, the prophecies, visionaries that will be canonized... you also have a feast day in the general Roman calendar, the approval of the local bishop, and of every pope afterwards, you have the canonization of the visionaries and the basilica that was built, so all the hallmarks of a Marian apparition are there,” he said. O’Neill records the details of Fatima, other Marian apparitions and all things miraculous on his site, miraclehunter.com (http://miraclehunter.com/).
This year, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the apparition site on May 12-13, the 100th anniversary of the first Fatima apparition. The visit will include the canonizations of two of the child visionaries, who died just a few years after the visions.
But even though it’s been 100 years, “the messages of Fatima are as relevant today as they were in 1917,” O’Neill said.
“The essence of the message is a call to conversion, and that’s something that’s as important in our life in modern times as it was when Mary appeared in 1917. I think this 100 year anniversary is a great opportunity for us to revisit the devotion and to re-incorporate it into our lives today.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-1-15388/
It was not the actual Virgin Mary appearing but was a demonic spirit masquerading as the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary should be devoted to because she was not the one who was crucified on the Cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus should be the only one who should be devoted to since He was the one who was crucified on the cross for the sins of mankind.
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The controversial third secret
A century after the Fatima apparitions, controversies remain. The two biggest involve whether or not the full and authentic text of the third secret has been revealed, and whether or not Russia has been adequately consecrated to Mary.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In 1960, the year Sr. Lucia intended the third secret to be published, the Vatican issued a press release stating that it was “most probable the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal.” Widespread speculation ensued about what this meant for the content of the secret, ranging from “worldwide nuclear annihilation to deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies,” according to the New York Times.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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St. John XXIII and Bl. Paul VI both reportedly read the secret, but decided not to release it to the public.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In 1960, the year Sr. Lucia intended the third secret to be published, the Vatican issued a press release stating that it was “most probable the Secret would remain, forever, under absolute seal.” Widespread speculation ensued about what this meant for the content of the secret, ranging from “worldwide nuclear annihilation to deep rifts in the Roman Catholic Church that lead to rival papacies,” according to the New York Times.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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This is incorrect. There was no press release published. A press release, by definition, has a source and/or an author. The tiny article, which was the only thing ever published saying this as some kind of announcement, had neither.
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There was a tiny article that looked like an advertisement it was so small, in an obscure Italian newspaper, saying that the unpublished words spoken by Our Lady in the Fatima Secret would not be made public. The short article had no source, no signature, no author mentioned, no reporter's name and no reference. It was very odd. But observers noticed it and the rumor of its existence spread far and wide practically overnight, and this was before the Internet or even cell phones.
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For many Catholics, years went by before they ever saw a copy of the tiny article, and most never saw one at all.
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But one thing has so far been correct: The Third Secret has not yet been revealed, even when the Vatican's spokesmen have said that it has been. They are lying, but that's no surprise, since if it had been released then the tiny article in January of 1960 would have been a lie. Either way there is a big lie.
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There are many proofs that the text released in A.D. 2000 was not the text of the authentic Third Secret. The most obvious proof is that this thing they published has no words at all of Our Lady in it. It is merely a narration describing what the children had seen WHILE Our Lady spoke the words of the Third Secret.
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But what we have of Sister Lucia's testimony that leads up to the real Third Secret is direct quotes of Our Lady's words which she spoke to the three shepherd children that day, July 13th, 1917. The words of Our Lady ended with these: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved," etc.
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It was Sister Lucia who inserted the "etc." there which she explained stood in the place of the words Our Lady spoke which Lucia was not including in that testimony for public consumption.
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This is incorrect. There was no press release published. A press release, by definition, has a source and/or an author. The tiny article, which was the only thing ever published saying this as some kind of announcement, had neither.
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There was a tiny article that looked like an advertisement it was so small, in an obscure Italian newspaper, saying that the unpublished words spoken by Our Lady in the Fatima Secret would not be made public. The short article had no source, no signature, no author mentioned, no reporter's name and no reference. It was very odd. But observers noticed it and the rumor of its existence spread far and wide practically overnight, and this was before the Internet or even cell phones.
.
For many Catholics, years went by before they ever saw a copy of the tiny article, and most never saw one at all.
.
But one thing has so far been correct: The Third Secret has not yet been revealed, even when the Vatican's spokesmen have said that it has been. They are lying, but that's no surprise, since if it had been released then the tiny article in January of 1960 would have been a lie. Either way there is a big lie.
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There are many proofs that the text released in A.D. 2000 was not the text of the authentic Third Secret. The most obvious proof is that this thing they published has no words at all of Our Lady in it. It is merely a narration describing what the children had seen WHILE Our Lady spoke the words of the Third Secret.
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But what we have of Sister Lucia's testimony that leads up to the real Third Secret is direct quotes of Our Lady's words which she spoke to the three shepherd children that day, July 13th, 1917. The words of Our Lady ended with these: "In Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved," etc.
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It was Sister Lucia who inserted the "etc." there which she explained stood in the place of the words Our Lady spoke which Lucia was not including in that testimony for public consumption.
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If it was meant to be a secret then let it be.
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During the papacy of St. John Paul II, the questions regarding the third Fatima secret intensified. In an interview with German magazine Stimme des Glaubens, published in October 1981, John Paul II was pressed explicitly about the third secret.
He said: “Because of the seriousness of its contents, in order not to encourage the world wide power of Communism to carry out certain coups, my predecessors in the chair of Peter have diplomatically preferred to withhold its publication.”
He added that it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Quote from: poche (https://www.cathinfo.com/index.php?topic=44715.msg552628#msg552628)
During the papacy of St. John Paul II, the questions regarding the third Fatima secret intensified. In an interview with German magazine Stimme des Glaubens, published in October 1981, John Paul II was pressed explicitly about the third secret.
He said: “Because of the seriousness of its contents, in order not to encourage the world wide power of Communism to carry out certain coups, my predecessors in the chair of Peter have diplomatically preferred to withhold its publication.”
He added that it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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More contradictions.
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JPII was afraid of political consequences from the release of the Third Secret, so he must have figured he knew better than the Mother of God about politics, otherwise he would have done what she had requested of him.
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She gave him the solution to these political fears: Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary together with all the bishops of the world. But he didn't do that. He even SAID that Our Lady was "still awaiting" the Consecration of Russia exactly when the MSM was reporting that he had just made it. They said JPII had made a consecration of the world "with special mention of Russia." But JPII never spoke the word "Russia." How do you consecrate a country without mentioning the name of the country?
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Do you write a check on your checking account using a check that does not have your account number on it?
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Then they say he added "it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless." Okay, so what? Does that mean the Third Secret contains a predicted catastrophe against which Christians are helpless? Where in the published so-called Third Secret is there a catastrophe against which Christians are helpless? A half-ruined city? We have had hundreds of half-ruined cities in the past 100 years. Ever heard of Dresden? How about Fukushima or Heroshima or Nagasaki? Pearl Harbor? London was half ruined by the nαzιs. Were Christians believing they were helpless against the ruin of those cities when JPII was talking about this in 1981?
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It's really hard to swallow this. If the "half-ruined city" in the so-called Secret is what JPII was so afraid of, why was it released in 2000 without anyone being concerned?
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It doesn't add up, sorry.
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What DOES add up is this: the Vatican doesn't want to publish the Third Secret because it incriminates the Vatican.
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More contradictions.
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JPII was afraid of political consequences from the release of the Third Secret, so he must have figured he knew better than the Mother of God about politics, otherwise he would have done what she had requested of him.
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She gave him the solution to these political fears: Consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary together with all the bishops of the world. But he didn't do that. He even SAID that Our Lady was "still awaiting" the Consecration of Russia exactly when the MSM was reporting that he had just made it. They said JPII had made a consecration of the world "with special mention of Russia." But JPII never spoke the word "Russia." How do you consecrate a country without mentioning the name of the country?
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Do you write a check on your checking account using a check that does not have your account number on it?
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Then they say he added "it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless." Okay, so what? Does that mean the Third Secret contains a predicted catastrophe against which Christians are helpless? Where in the published so-called Third Secret is there a catastrophe against which Christians are helpless? A half-ruined city? We have had hundreds of half-ruined cities in the past 100 years. Ever heard of Dresden? How about Fukushima or Heroshima or Nagasaki? Pearl Harbor? London was half ruined by the nαzιs. Were Christians believing they were helpless against the ruin of those cities when JPII was talking about this in 1981?
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It's really hard to swallow this. If the "half-ruined city" in the so-called Secret is what JPII was so afraid of, why was it released in 2000 without anyone being concerned?
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It doesn't add up, sorry.
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What DOES add up is this: the Vatican doesn't want to publish the Third Secret because it incriminates the Vatican.
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Maybe they don't want to publish it because it would be better for you if you didn't know.
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He added that it would be unhelpful to publish the secret if it led Christians to believe that there were a predicted catastrophe against which they were helpless.
Holding up his rosary, the Pope declared: “Here is the remedy against this evil. Pray, pray and ask for nothing else. Put everything in the hands of the Mother of God.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
The rosary is also the remedy against Boko Haram and against ISIS.
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On May 2, 1981, an Australian named Laurence James Downey, who claimed to be a defrocked French Trappist monk, hijacked an airplane and demanded that St. John Paul II reveal the Third Secret of Fatima. The man was believed to be armed with a bomb, but the incident was resolved without any injuries to passengers onboard.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In 1984, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that “if [the Third Secret] is not published … it is to avoid confusing religious prophecy with sensationalism. But the things contained in the Third Secret correspond to what has been announced in Scripture and are confirmed by many other Marian apparitions.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Widespread speculation and concern led to the secret’s publishing in 2000 by the Vatican. The late release angered many who read the secret and didn’t understand what was so controversial about it that delayed publication by decades.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Conspirators questioned whether the authentic secret, or the secret in full, had actually been revealed. The Vatican version, which is claimed to be a photocopy of the original handwritten note from Sr. Lucia, took up four pages, while some allege that Sr. Lucia had actually written the third secret on just one page.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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<<<The rosary is also the remedy against Boko Haram and against ISIS. >>>
It is also the remedy against those who fund Boko Haram and Isis and those who have caused, and want to cause, with the help of such groups, havoc against those Middle East nations that had/have sizeable Christian populations all of which who are now in great tribulation.
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Neil, good points but you are better off talking to a lamp-post.
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Here is a quote from Albert Kopsho (#23) which was made in response to Poche's post of May 08, 2017, 11:28:25 PM (https://www.cathinfo.com/the-sacred-catholic-liturgy-chant-prayers/fatima/msg549879/#msg549879)
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It was not the actual Virgin Mary appearing but was a demonic spirit masquerading as the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary should be devoted to because she was not the one who was crucified on the Cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus should be the only one who should be devoted to since He was the one who was crucified on the cross for the sins of mankind.
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Nobody could see your post, Albert, because you typed in Poche's quote box instead of beneath it. And so what you wrote was hidden unless one were to scroll down, so in future, be sure that you type below the quote frame.
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What you write, however illustrates that you are not Catholic and do not understand the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary or the devotion we have to her. It shows that you know next to nothing about Fatima and I advise you, that if you should be interested in finding out more about Fatima and Our Blessed Mother's appearances there, that you should not garner too much from Poche's catholicnewsagency reports, which will only confuse and deceive you. You need to go to a reliable source. Maybe someone here can direct you to a more reliable source. Many of us here are not happy with the abuse Poche makes of this site.
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Some skeptics are also suspicious about the third secret because it does not contain any words directly from Mary, unlike the other secrets.
Some also question the content of the secret, because it does not directly speak of the apocalypse, as was expected from interviews of Sr. Lucia.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Others are also suspicious of Sr. Lucia’s transfer from the Dorothean Sisters, where she initially entered, to a cloistered Carmelite convent, the order she transferred to with permission in 1948. The move to the Carmelite order, which has strict rules about communication with the outside world, is seen by some as part of a larger conspiracy effort to censor her visions and the third secret.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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On the other hand, Sr. Lucia herself confirmed several times that the third secret as published by the Vatican is in full and correct. Specifically in a November 17, 2001 statement to the secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, she confirmed that the Fatima secret has been totally revealed by the Vatican, and Russia has already been consecrated as Mary requested.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Those who affirm that the secret has been fully revealed say that to question the secret’s authenticity is to question the original visionary’s credibility.
The authenticity of the third secret has also been confirmed by the Popes and other Vatican officials.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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When the secret was published, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said that “The events to which the third part of the ‘secret’ of Fatima refers now seem part of the past. […] Those who expected exciting apocalyptic revelations about the end of the world or the future course of history are bound to be disappointed.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In 2016, an article on Catholic blog One Peter Five included an interview with a German priest who claimed to recall a conversation in which Pope Benedict XVI told him that the third secret had not been fully revealed. In a response on May 21, 2016, the Vatican released a statement (http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2016/05/21/0366/00855.html) from Pope Benedict XVI declaring that any claims that the third secret had not been fully revealed were “pure inventions, absolutely untrue.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The other controversy: The consecration of Russia
As Mary promised in the second secret, she came back to ask for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart. On June 13, 1929, Mary reappeared to Sr. Lucia, who was with the Sisters of St. Dorothy at the time, asking for the consecration of Russia, “promising its conversion through this means the hindering of the propagation of its errors.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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There were three “conditions” of the consecration, explained by Mary in the second part of the secret: The Pope must consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with a special mention of Russia, in union with the bishops of the whole world.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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At an unknown date after this apparition, Sr. Lucia made the request for consecration known to Pius XI. In 1938, the Portuguese bishops asked Pius XI to make the consecration, but no action was taken. Upon the election of Venerable Pius XII in 1939, several clergy repeated the request to the Pope.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In December 1940, with World War II well underway in Europe, Sr. Lucia wrote a letter to Pius XII, requesting the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary “with a special mention for Russia, and order that all the bishops of the world do the same in union with Your Holiness.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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More than a year later, on October 31, 1942, Venerable Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, though without the involvement of the bishops of the world. War made communications difficult, and many bishops had been imprisoned or even killed. Sr. Lucia said that though this consecration was imperfect, Jesus revealed to her that it was enough to bring a quicker end to World War II, sparing many lives.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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In July 1952, Venerable Pius XII consecrated the people of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but again, because it was done privately and not in conjunction with the bishops of the world, the consecration was incomplete. At least once during his papacy, Blessed Paul VI renewed the Russia consecration, although it did not fulfill the requirements of being in union with the bishops of the world.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Ongoing, dedication political relations with Russia made a consecration that specifically called out the country difficult.
“It’s not that the Church forgot about what the Madonna said about Russia, it’s not that Russia was forgotten, absolutely no,” said Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
“For what regards the consecration of Russia to the heart of Mary, the Church did this, but with an extraordinarily unique diplomatic skill. But she did it.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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“For what regards the consecration of Russia to the heart of Mary, the Church did this, but with an extraordinarily unique diplomatic skill. But she did it.”
According to Sr. Lucia, the consecration was complete during the pontificate of St. John Paul II, who several times attempted to fulfill the requirements of the Russia consecration.
It was finally considered fully complete after the consecration he made on March 25, 1984, as confirmed by Sr. Lucia.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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St. John Paul II, “united with all the pastors of the Church in a particular bond whereby we constitute a body and a college,” consecrates “the whole world, especially the peoples for which by reason of their situation you have particular love and solicitude,” he said in the consecration.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Because the Church...if she would have consecrated Russia to the heart of Mary and nothing else, it would have provoked a terrible reaction on the part of Russia,” Cardinal Martins explained.
“The Pope realized this. It was something, from the standpoint of Russia, completely unacceptable...It certainly would have had extraordinary consequences...But the Church fulfilled what the Madonna asked by consecrating not Russia in particular, but the world; I underline the world, and Russia is part of the world. So was Russia also consecrated to Our Lady’s heart or not? Russia was consecrated. If I consecrate the world to Russia, I also consecrate Italy, the United States, to the heart of Mary. They are part of the world consecrated to the heart of Mary.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Both St. John Paul II and Sr. Lucia initially seemed uncertain that the consecration has been fulfilled in 1984, but shortly thereafter Sr. Lucia told the papal nuncio to Portugal that the Consecration had been fulfilled. She also confirmed this in a letter to one of her sisters in 1989, and again in a letter to a priest in 1990, as well as in her statement to the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 2001.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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A warning against “sensationalism”
Despite Vatican attempts to quell rumors and hearsay, the Fatima conspiracy theories still persist.
But Benedict XVI several times warned against this “sensationalism” that he says Mary would not have intended as the fruit of her apparitions.
Four years before the third secret’s release, in a 1996 interview with Portugal's main Catholic radio station, Cardinal Ratzinger, who had already read the secret, issued this warning: “To all curious people, I would say I am certain that the Virgin does not engage in sensationalism; she does not act in order to instigate fear. She does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides people to her Son. And this is what is essential.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005, and visited the apparition site as Pope in 2010.
During a press conference for the visit, he reminded the faithful that the message of Fatima is not about conspiracy theories regarding the end of the world, but about the faithful’s response in “ongoing conversion, penance, prayer, and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.”
“This is our response, we are realists in expecting that evil always attacks, attacks from within and without, yet that the forces of good are also ever present and that, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history,” he said.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Vatican recognition and papal trips to Fatima
In 1930, Bishop Dom Jose Aleves Correia da Silva of the Diocese of Leiria (now Leiria-Fatima) declared that, based on the results of the investigative commission, the apparitions at Fatima were “worthy of belief.”
Since then, the Fatima apparitions have received significant recognition on the part of the Vatican, and Pius XI granted a special indulgence to those who visited the newly-built Fatima shrine.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Venerable Pius XII encouraged devotion to Our Lady of Fatima so much so that he became known as “the Pope of Fatima.”
He is reported to have said: “The time for doubting Fatima has passed, the time for action is now.” He was the first Pope to consecrate the world, and then Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Moreover, it was during his papacy, in 1944, that the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was extended to the entire Roman rite, to be celebrated on Aug. 22, the octave day of the Assumption.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Bl. Paul VI visited the shrine of Fatima, on May 13, 1967, as did Cardinal Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice – who was elected Pope in 1978.
St. John Paul II visited the Fatima shrine three times – in 1982, 1991 and 2000. During his 2000 visit, he beatified the two deceased visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco. He also added the feast of Our Lady of Fatima to the General Roman Calendar, to be celebrated May 13.
The Polish Pope had a particularly strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima. After a close shave with death during an assassination attempt on his life on the 64th anniversary of the first apparitions – May 13, 1981 – the Pope credited his survival to Our Lady of Fatima’s miraculous intervention. As a sign of his gratitude, he placed the bullet from the failed assassination in her crown.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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As a cardinal, Benedict XVI had a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima which extended to his papacy, when he visited the Fatima shrine from May 11-14, 2010. In 2008, he waived the typical five-year waiting period in order to open Sr. Lucia’s cause for canonization. The local Church in February 2017 finished collecting docuмents to examine her heroic virtue.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Pope Francis as well has a strong devotion to Our Lady of Fatima, and consecrated his papacy to her on May 13, 2013.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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What happened to the visionaries after the apparitions?
As foretold in the apparitions, the sibling pair of Francisco and Jacinta would only live a short while after the apparitions were completed.
Convicted by Mary’s requests and the vision of hell, both children lived lives of prayer and penance after the apparitions, offering themselves for sinners as Mary had asked. Francisco was known for his devotion to the Eucharist and his strict physical mortifications, while Jacinta was especially known for having a heart for the poor and the suffering.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Both children fell victim to the influenza epidemic of 1918 that swept through Europe. In October 1918, Mary again appeared to the sick siblings and promised to take them to heaven soon. On April 3, 1919, Francisco declined hospital treatment for influenza and died the next day, at the age of 11.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The two leading stigmatists of the 20th Century, Padre Pio 1887-1968 and Marie Julie Jahenny 1850 - 1941 did not speak much about Fatima. In fact the latter spoke mostly about La Salette.
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Neil, good points but you are better off talking to a lamp-post.
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What about to flat-earthers?
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What about to flat-earthers?
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Nope, they don't shine any light.
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Jacinta was given hospital treatment in hopes of prolonging her life, but she knew that she would soon join Francisco in heaven. On February 19, 1920, Jacinta asked the hospital chaplain who heard her confession to bring her Holy Communion and administer the last rites, because she was going to die “the next night.” But the priest said that her condition was not that serious and that he would return the next day. The next day Jacinta was found dead – she had died in her sleep at 10 years old.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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As for Lucia, she outlived her cousins by many years, as Mary had predicted. Shortly after the deaths of her cousins, at 14 years old, she was sent to the Dorothean Sisters of Villar for school, and in 1928 became a sister of St. Dorothy. In 1946, she transferred to the convent of the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra, Portugal and took the name Sister Maria Lucia of the Immaculate Heart.
She received visions and messages from Mary and Jesus on several more occasions throughout her life, including the visions in 1925 that led to the Five First Saturday devotions, which include saying the rosary, receiving communion and confession, and meditation during the first Saturday of five consecutive months.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Besides the four memoirs she wrote between 1935 and 1941, Sr. Lucia had an additional book published in 2001, known as Calls from the Message of Fatima or Appeals of the Fatima Message. She visited the Fatima shrine during Bl. Paul VI’s visit in 1967, and during all three of St. John Paul II’s visits.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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Aside from her memoirs and letters to clergy regarding Fatima, she had limited communication with the outside world, per her Carmelite vows.
Sr. Lucia died in 2005 at the age of 97, at the Carmelite convent of Santa Teresa in Coimbra, where she had lived since 1948.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/
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The canonization of Francisco and Jacinta
Popularity of the Fatima apparitions spread, and the cause for canonization of Francisco and Jacinta was opened in 1946. Much of what is known about their life and holiness is known through Lucia’s memoirs.
“People may ask: ‘These children died so young, what do we know about them and their lives of faith?’ But a lot was related by Sr. Lucia and the witnesses of the apparitions. Francisco had a devotion to the Eucharist, and Jacinta wanted to help those who were suffering, that was her charism or focus after the apparition. Those are details most of us don’t really know about,” O’Neill said.
Francisco and Jacinta became the youngest non-martyr children to be beatified, on May 13, 2000, the 83rd anniversary of the first apparition. St. John Paul II presided over the Mass.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/ (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fatima-part-2-85769/)
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The niece of Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia dos Santos said her aunt was a normal person like everyone else, but shared some personal advice that her saintly relative used to give: to pray every single day.
“She always asked me to pray the rosary every day, because there were many who did not pray,” Maria dos Anjos, niece of Fatima visionary Lucia dos Santos, told CNA.
“This was what Our Lady asked: that we pray the rosary every day. Because there were many who didn't pray and because of this many souls went to hell because there was no one to pray for them,” she said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Anjos, who only saw her aunt when they went to visit her in the convent, said the advice Lucia always gave her was to pray daily, and “that I not forget.”
She recalled that in a few of the conversations she had with her aunt, she confessed to not finishing the rosary because she was tired, having worked hard in the fields all day.
In response, Lucia didn’t reproach, but instead told her to “always start it, and if you don’t finish, Our Lady will finish it.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Anjos is the daughter of one of Lucia’s older sisters. She grew up in the house directly across the street from where Lucia and her family used to live.
While now there are paved streets and cars driving past the houses and tourist shops set up near Lucia’s house, which is now preserved as a museum and is open to the public for visits, Anjos said that when she was growing up, “there wasn’t anything here...just a mountain and some sheep and donkeys.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Although she was only one year old at the time Lucia entered the convent, Anjos said her family would go to visit whenever they could.
Lucia, she said, “was a sister like the others. There was no difference. She was just like the other sisters who were in the convent,” and was always “joyful” – both as a child and as a religious sister.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Recalling memories that her mother had shared of her and Lucia’s childhood, Anjos said Lucia was a normal child like everyone else, and never lacked playmates.
“Many children came to play with her because their parents went to the wine estates and left their children here, because there was always someone at the house of Lucia’s mother who looked after the kids,” Anjos said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Her grandmother and mother to Lucia, Maria Rosa Farreira, was a catechist, and would also teach the children who came to the house while their parents were away.
Faith was always a big part of their family, even before the apparitions, Anjos said, explaining that “we always prayed the rosary, we went to Mass every Sunday, we did what we saw that could be done.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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After the apparitions of Mary, “we continued, doing more, and remembering that Our Lady asked us to pray more and to make more sacrifices,” she said, jesting that “we do our homework well.”
She recalled being able to attend Mass with Pope John Paul II during one of his three visits to Fatima, saying she was able to receive communion from him alongside her aunt, Sister Lucia.
https://www.cathinfo.com/the-sacred-catholic-liturgy-chant-prayers/fatima/75/?action=post;last_msg=577247
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“When communion came, I received communion from his hands, from the hands of the Holy Father. I liked it a lot,” she said, adding “you always like good things, do you not?”
Though she wasn’t able to speak with John Paul, Anjos said she was still “very happy,” and also content to welcome Pope Francis during his May 12-13 visit for the centenary of the Fatima apparitions.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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Noting an uptick in visits to the shrine, Anjos said that many people, her family included, would pray the rosary and visit the shrine after the apparitions, but “it seems that we have more devotion.”
“I think that faith has increased here and in the whole world,” she said. “At least I think it has, because many people come here, and that’s why we have to (pray) more and more. I think it did a lot of good for people to have Our Lady appear here.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-was-sr-lucias-advice-after-fatima-visions-pray-everyday-17504
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On “the day the sun danced,” thousands of people bore witness to a miracle that not only proved the validity of the Fatima Marian apparitions, but also shattered the prevalent belief at the time that God was no longer relevant, according to one theologian.
What crowds witnessed the day of the miracle was “the news that God, in the end, contrary to what was said in the philosophy books at that time, was alive and acting in the midst of men,” Dr. Marco Daniel Duarte told CNA.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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If one were to open philosophy books during that period, they would likely read something akin to the concept conceived by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who boldly asserted in the late 1800s that “God is dead.”
Yet as this and other philosophies like it were gaining steam in the life and thought of society, the Virgin Mary appears and tells three small shepherds that “God is alive and still attentive to humanity, even though humanity is waging war with one another.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Duarte, a theologian and director of the Fatima shrine museums, spoke about the cultural significance of the Miracle of the Sun given the atheistic thought prevalent in Portuguese society at the time.
In 1917, Portugal, like the majority of the world, was embroiled in war. As World War I raged throughout Europe, Portugal found itself unable to maintain its initial neutrality and joined forces with the Allies, in order to protect colonies in Africa and to defend their trade with Britain. About 220,000 Portuguese civilians died during the war; thousands due to food shortages, thousands more from the Spanish flu.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Compounding the problem, government stability in the country had been rocky at best following the revolution and coup d’état that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and subsequent establishment of the First Portuguese Republic in 1910.
A new liberal constitution separating Church and state was drafted under the influence of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ, which sought to omit the faith – which for many was the backbone of Portuguese culture and society – from public life.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Anti-Catholicism in Portugal had initially begun in the 18th century during the term of statesman Marquês de Pombal, and flared up again after the drafting of the new constitution.
Catholic churches and schools were seized by the government, and the wearing of clerics in public, the ringing of church bells, and the celebrating of popular religious festivals were banned. Between 1911-1916, nearly 2,000 priests, monks and nuns were killed by anti-Christian groups.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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This was the backdrop against which Mary, in 1917, appeared to three shepherd children – Lucia dos Santos, 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, 9 and 7 – in a field in Fatima, Portugal, bringing with her requests for the recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret regarding the fate of the world.
To prove that the apparitions were true, Mary promised the children that during the last of her six appearances she would provide a “sign” so people would believe in the apparitions and in her message.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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What happened on that day – Oct. 13, 1917 – has come to be known as the “Miracle of the Sun,” or “the day the sun danced.”
According to various accounts, a crowd of some 70,000 people – believers and skeptics alike – gathered to see the miracle that Mary had promised. After appearing and speaking to the children for some time, Mary then “cast her own light upon the sun.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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The previously rainy sky cleared up, the clouds dispersed and the ground, which had been wet and muddy from the rain, was dried. A transparent veil came over the sun, making it easy to look at, and multi-colored lights were strewn across the landscape.
The sun then began to spin, twirling in the sky, and at one point appeared to veer toward earth before jumping back to its place in the sky.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Duarte said the miracle was a direct, and very convincing contradiction to the atheistic regimes at the time, which is evidenced by the fact that the first newspaper to report on the miracle was an anti-Catholic, Masonic newspaper in Lisbon called O Seculo.
The Miracle of the Sun, he said, was understood by the people to be “the seal, the guarantee that in fact those three children were telling the truth.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Even today, “Fatima makes people change their perception of God,” he said, explaining that for him, one of the most important messages of the apparitions is that “even if man has separated God from his existence, God is present in human history and doesn’t abandon humanity.”
With World War I raging, a war the likes of which the world had never seen, Mary appeared to tell the children that “that story can have another ending, when the power of prayer is stronger than the power of bullets.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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The Miracle of the Sun is also the heart of a special exhibition called “The Colors of the Sun” the shrine is offering for the duration of the centenary year of the apparitions, which focuses on the symbolic nature of the miracle and its cultural significance.
Displayed are “various objects, some older, others more contemporary, some more modern, some made of textile, others of organic materials, paintings, sculptures,” but which are all “placed with a narrative,” he said.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Duarte said the miracle was a direct, and very convincing contradiction to the atheistic regimes at the time, which is evidenced by the fact that the first newspaper to report on the miracle was an anti-Catholic, Masonic newspaper in Lisbon called O Seculo.
The Miracle of the Sun, he said, was understood by the people to be “the seal, the guarantee that in fact those three children were telling the truth.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
It makes sense that the Miracle of the Sun was understood by the people to seal and guarantee that in fact the children were telling the truth.
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Beginning with a set of black umbrellas used by people who had gathered at the Cova de Iria (Cave of Iria) where Mary appeared Oct. 13, the exhibit aims to build a narrative of what people saw that day, and is supplemented with different works that express the various elements of Mary’s message to the children.
It also shows how the shrine developed over the years, showing the transformation of what used to be a small, simple chapel into what is now two basilicas: the Basilica of Nossa Senhora do Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary) and Basilica da Santissima Trindade (Basilica of the Holy Trinity), with an open chapel in between where the statue of Our Lady of Fatima resides.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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Pieces come from all over the world – some from the Fatima shrine, some from the State of Portugal, and some even hail from Germany and France.
One of the highlight pieces is a giant heart made by Joana Vasconcelos, a well-known Portuguese artist who crafted the piece entirely out of red plastic ware, such as spoons and forks.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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"Whatever we can imagine God to be, the reality of Our Lady is greater." (I am not saying Our Lady is God, to all you peabrains out there. :fryingpan:.)
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The reality of Our Lady is not greater than God. But having said that, being devoted to the Immaculate heart of Mary and the recitation of the Rosary is necessary for salvation, without a doubt.
Mary, is the living Ark of the New testament.
Apocalypse 11:19, 12:1-2 And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.
Mary is the Vessel that contains Divine Grace, God Himself.
Prophecy of Jeremias 31:22 ... for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.
Luke 1:28 And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
Our Lady told Sister Lucia of Fatima about the new efficacy and importance of the Rosary in the last times that we live in.
One of the three visionaries of Fatima, Sr. Lucia, told Fr. Fuentes in 1957:
“Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times of the world but she made me understand this for three reasons.
The first reason is because she told me that the Devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. And a decisive battle is the final battle where one side will be victorious and the other side will suffer defeat. Hence from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the Devil. There is no other possibility.
The second reason is because she said to my cousins as well as to myself that God is giving two last remedies to the world. These are the Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the last two remedies which signify that there will be no others.
“The third reason is because in the plans of Divine Providence, God always, before He is about to chastise the world, exhausts all other remedies. Now, when He sees that the world pays no attention whatsoever then, as we say in our imperfect manner of speaking, He offers us with a certain trepidation the last means of salvation, His Most Holy Mother. It is with a certain trepidation because if you despise and repulse this ultimate means we will not have any more forgiveness from Heaven because we will have committed a sin which the Gospel calls the sin against the Holy Spirit. This sin consists of openly rejecting with full knowledge and consent, the salvation which He offers. Let us remember that Jesus Christ is a very good Son and that He does not permit that we offend and despise His Most Holy Mother. We have recorded through many centuries of Church history the obvious testimony which demonstrates, by the terrible chastisements which have befallen those who have attacked the honor of His Most Holy Mother, how Our Lord Jesus Christ has always defended the honor of His Mother.” Footnote: Sr. Lucy’s interview with Fr. Fuentes, quoted in The Whole Truth About Fatima by Frere Michel de la Sainte Trinite, Buffalo, NY: Immaculate Heart Publications, Vol. 3, p. 503 ff.
**It is imperative to understand that Grace, Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Instruction, and Counsel comes from the Holy Ghost but only through the hands of Mary.
John 14:26 But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you."
St. Louis De Montfort: “When the Holy Ghost, her Spouse, has found Mary in a soul, He flies there. He enters there in His fullness; He communicates Himself to that soul abundantly, and to the full extent to which it makes room for His Spouse. Nay, one of the great reasons why the Holy Ghost does not now do startling wonders in our souls is because He does not find there a sufficiently great union with His faithful and inseparable Spouse.” (True Devotion to Mary, # 36)
The book of Ecclesiasticus confirms that the grace of wisdom and all graces, passes through the hands of Mary, as a Mother and speaks about the chain, fetters, bands of the Rosary, especially in the latter end. As Jesus came through Mary, the Holy Ghost operates the same way.
Ecclesiasticus 4:11-13, 21 And thou shalt be as the obedient son of the [Holy Ghost] most High, and he will have mercy on thee more than a mother. [12] Wisdom inspireth life into her children, and protecteth them that seek after her, and will go before them in the way of justice. [13] And he that loveth her, loveth life: and they that watch for her, shall embrace her sweetness. … [21] And will disclose her secrets to him, and will heap upon him treasures of knowledge and understanding of justice.
"Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Our life, Our Sweetness, Our Hope …"
Ecclesiasticus 6:18-20, 23-34 [18] My son, from thy youth up receive instruction, and even to thy grey hairs thou shalt find wisdom. [19] Come to her as one that plougheth, and soweth, and wait for her good fruits: [20] For in working about her thou shalt labour a little, and shalt quickly eat of her fruits. … [23] For the wisdom of doctrine is according to her name, and she is not manifest unto many, but with them to whom she is known, she continueth even to the sight of God. [24] Give ear, my son, and take wise counsel, and cast not away my advice. [25] Put thy feet into her fetters, and thy neck into her chains:[26] Bow down thy shoulder, and bear her, and be not grieved with her bands. [27] Come to her with all thy mind, and keep her ways with all thy power. [28] Search for her, and she shall be made known to thee, and when thou hast gotten her, let her not go: [29] For in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her, and she shall be turned to thy joy. [30] Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and a firm foundation, and her chain a robe of glory:[31] For in her is the beauty of life, and her bands are a healthful binding. [32] Thou shalt put her on as a robe of glory, and thou shalt set her upon thee as a crown of joy. [33] My son, if thou wilt attend to me, thou shalt learn: and if thou wilt apply thy mind, thou shalt be wise. [34] If thou wilt incline thy ear, thou shalt receive instruction: and if thou love to hear, thou shalt be wise.
Regarding the Holy Rosary, Sister Lucia told Father Fuentes in the famous 1957 interview:
“Look, Father, the Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Holy Rosary. She has given this efficacy to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all, spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families, of the families of the world, or of the religious communities, or even of the life of peoples and nations that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary. With the Holy Rosary, we will save ourselves. We will sanctify ourselves. We will console Our Lord and obtain the salvation of many souls.”
Concerning the Rosary, in the latter times, the book of Ecclesiasticus confirms, the power of the Rosary as a weapon.
Ecclesiasticus 6:29-30 For in the latter end thou shalt find rest in her [Mary], and she shall be turned to thy joy. [30] Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and a firm foundation, and her chain a robe of glory: [the Rosary]
Padre Pio regarding the Rosary.
"Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the Rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother."
The fathers of the church and saints have concluded the same thing, that the Rosary is necessary for salvation.
St. Louis De Montfort: “… many others have proved invincibly, from the sentiments of the Fathers (among others, St. Augustine, St. Ephrem, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Germanus, St. John Damascene, St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Bernardine, St. Thomas and St. Bonaventure), that devotion to Mary is necessary to salvation, and that… it is an infallible mark of reprobation to have no esteem and love for the holy Virgin.” (True Devotion to Mary # 40)
St. Louis De Montfort: “If devotion to the most holy Virgin Mary is necessary to all men simply for working out their salvation, it is still more so for those who are called to any special perfection…” (True Devotion to Mary #43)
St. Louis De Montfort (+1710): “Blessed Alan de la Roche who was so deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin had many revelations from her and we know that he confirmed the truth of these revelations by a solemn oath. Three of them stand out with special emphasis: the first, that if people fail to say the Hail Mary (the Angelic Salutation which has saved the world) out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because they hate it, this is a sign that they will probably and indeed shortly be condemned to eternal punishment.” (Secret of the Rosary, p. 45)
Even St. Paul alludes to the Rosary.
Ephesians 6:20 For which I am an ambassador in a chain, so that therein I may be bold to speak according as I ought. [John 14:26]
www.olmc-mission.org/secret_of_the_rosary.pdf (http://www.olmc-mission.org/secret_of_the_rosary.pdf)
I highly recommend that everyone read the Book "Secret of the Rosary". There are so many secrets regarding Our Lady and the Rosary.
Ecclesiasticus 4:21 And will disclose her secrets to him, and will heap upon him treasures of knowledge and understanding of justice.
But few care about Our Lady and the Rosary, to their own destruction. This is why, few are saved. All People truly need to seriously consider that Mary is necessary for salvation.
Without grace, all men are dead!
Ecclesiasticus 20:21 A man without grace is as a vain fable, it shall be continually in the mouth of the unwise.
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently, lest any man be wanting to the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up do hinder, and by it many be defiled.
1 Corinthians 1:7 So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mary, is the Vessel of Grace, for which all graces pass through the hands of Mary. Mary, is the Gate of Heaven, by which all men must pass through. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, tells us so!
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
… Mother of divine grace, pray for us. … Virgin most merciful, pray for us. … Seat of wisdom, pray for us. … Spiritual vessel, pray for us.
Vessel of honor, pray for us. Singular vessel of devotion, pray for us. … Tower of David, pray for us. Tower of ivory, pray for us. House of gold, pray for us. Ark of the Covenant, pray for us. Gate of Heaven, pray for us. ...
Solomon's Temple was not only a prefigurement of the Catholic church but also a prefigurement of Mary i.e. Tower of David, Tower of Ivory, House of Gold, the Gate of Heaven. The old testament reveals this clearly. There are so many secrets about Mary in the old testament.
3 Kings [1 Kings] 10:18 King Solomon also made a great throne of ivory: and overlaid it with the finest gold.
3 Kings [1 Kings] 6:21-22 And the house before the oracle he overlaid with most pure gold, and fastened on the plates with nails of gold. [22] And there was nothing in the temple that was not covered with gold:
Has anyone every wondered why Mary, appeared to the children of Fatima on the 13th day of the month, for six months in 1917? It signified that Mary is the Gate of Heaven. There is a description of Solomon's Temple and the gate of Solomon's Temple, that is rebuilt, after the destruction that was made by King Nebuchadnezzar, in the book of Jeremias. Ezekiel describes his vision of the rebuilding of the gate and the Temple. Ezekiel was one of the men taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Prophecy of Ezekiel 40:6,11 And he came to the gate that looked toward the east, … and the length of the gate thirteen cubits: [Mary, the gate of Heaven]
The door [gate] of a Catholic church should always face the east!
Prophecy of Ezekiel 43:1-2 And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east. And behold the glory of the God of Israel came in by the way of the east:
It signifies a few things, [1] the rising of the Sun [Son] from the east upon the gate, [2] Mary and her perpetual virginity, that only God passes into the Gate [3] and the door of the Catholic church and the Catholic church itself. It also signifies that only members receive the sacraments, the door is shut to those who are "Outside the Catholic Church", until they are washed, through the laver of regeneration.
Ezekiel 44:1-3 And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut For the prince.
Luke 1:31-32,35 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. [32] He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; … And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Canticles 4:12 …, my spouse, is a garden enclosed, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.
Prophecy of Jeremias 31:22 ... for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.
And so it is, Mary is truly the gate of Heaven! She compasses all of her children under her mantle. All men must pass through this gate. But most do not!
Ecclesiasticus 6:21-23 How very unpleasant is wisdom to the unlearned, and the unwise will not continue with her. She shall be to them as a mighty stone of trial, and they will cast her from them before it be long. For the wisdom of doctrine is according to her name, and she is not manifest unto many,…
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!
St. Louis De Montfort: “As there are secrets of nature by which natural operations are performed more easily, in a short time and at little cost; so are there secrets in the order of grace by which supernatural operations, such as ridding ourselves of self, filling ourselves with God, and becoming perfect, are performed more easily. The practice which I am about to disclose [of true devotion to Mary] is one of these secrets, unknown to the greater number of Christians, known even to few of the devout, and practiced and relished by a lesser number still.”
St. Louis De Montfort (+1710): “Blessed Alan de la Roche who was so deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin had many revelations from her and we know that he confirmed the truth of these revelations by a solemn oath. Three of them stand out with special emphasis: the first, that if people fail to say the Hail Mary (the Angelic Salutation which has saved the world) out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because they hate it, this is a sign that they will probably and indeed shortly be condemned to eternal punishment.”
All men throughout the day should say "Hail Mary's" and the Rosary, sincerely, everyday. Truly, you will be amazed how your eyes will be opened, regarding the grace of knowledge and understanding!
But also, all men must get out the counterfeit catholic church, the vatican II sect.
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Sts. Francisco & Jacinta Marto
Between May 13 and October 13, 1917, three children, Portuguese shepherds from Aljustrel, received apparitions of Our Lady at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon. At that time, Europe was involved in an extremely bloody war. Portugal itself was in political turmoil, having overthrown its monarchy in 1910; the government disbanded religious organizations soon after.
At the first appearance, Mary asked the children to return to that spot on the thirteenth of each month for the next six months. She also asked them to learn to read and write and to pray the rosary “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.” They were to pray for sinners and for the conversion of Russia, which had recently overthrown Czar Nicholas II and was soon to fall under communism. Up to 90,000 people gathered for Mary’s final apparition on October 13, 1917.
Less than two years later, Francisco died of influenza in his family home. He was buried in the parish cemetery and then re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1952. Jacinta died of influenza in Lisbon, offering her suffering for the conversion of sinners, peace in the world and the Holy Father. She was re-buried in the Fatima basilica in 1951. Their cousin, Lucia dos Santos, became a Carmelite nun and was still living when Jacinta and Francisco were beatified in 2000. Sister Lucia died five years later. The shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is visited by up to 20 million people a year.
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2018-02-20
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“It’s material that isn’t important for anyone, but which after everything is united, forms the image of a heart and can be the image of reparation,” Duarte said.
The exhibit closes with white parasols, rather than umbrellas, in order to show the fruit of the miracle, Duarte said, adding that it can also signify “the presence of God, the Eucharistic Christ.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148
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In this sense, the parasols “can be for us a symbol that also we can be God’s tabernacles and can be the place where God dwells,” he said. “This is the true shrine that God wants. The shrine of Fatima is precisely the image of what God wants: to dwell among men.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/miracle-of-the-sun-broke-darkness-of-portugals-atheist-regimes-28148