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Our Lady of Fatima

Our Lady of Fatima (Portuguese: Nossa Senhora de Fátima) is one of the best known Marian apparitions in the world.

History

Between May and October, 1917, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in the fields outside the village of Aljustrel, very close to Fatima, Portugal. She would come and speak to them on the 13th of every month.

She exhorted the children to do penance and sacrifices to save sinners. They wore tight cords around their waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and other works of penance. Most important, she asked them to say the Rosary every day. She reiterated many times that the Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. Many young Portuguese men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World War I.

On her last visit, a crowd of 70,000 people, including reporters from sceptical, anti-religious newspapers, gathered in a torrential rainstorm to witness the great . Many people in the crowd said that the sun changed colours, began dancing around in the sky and went completely dark for several minutes before seeming to plunge toward the earth, then returning to its proper place. Reporter Avelino de Almeida, who had snarked at Fatima in previous articles, saw and reported it, while his photographer saw nothing but shot pictures of the crowd looking up.

There is no independent verification of the solar phenomenon, and no movement or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time. It was reportedly witnessed from up to 25 miles away, but these people did not know what to make of it and apparently most did not consider it miraculous. Not everyone in the crowd saw the "sun dance", including the children, who reported seeing Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph blessing the people.

The three secrets of Fatima

Most of the interest in Fatima, however, revolves around the famous three-part secret of Fatima, which includes remarkable visions of the future. The first part described a horrific vision of Hell, while the second foretold the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II and called for the "Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary". Many believe Pope John Paul II fulfilled this request by giving a blessing over Russia shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, although others are concerned that this blessing was not enough.

The third secret was kept under wraps by the Vatican until Easter 2000 – despite the Virgin's declaration that it could be released to the public after 1940 and must be released by 1960. When 1960 passed without any such announcement, this led to immense speculation over the content of the secret. In short, people assumed that if the Popes chose to oppose the supposed will of Mary, it was because it would have been far worse to reveal the content than not to reveal it. Some cynics claim that the third secret was simply that there was only two secrets.

The officially released text of the secret was symbolic in nature and open to various interpretations. The Church's interpretation was that the subject of the prophecy was the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II by a Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca, in Saint Peter's Square, Rome. The shooting occurred on May 13, the date of the first of the reported Fatima visions. The Pope had reportedly stooped to hug a little girl wearing a Fatima Badge when the assailant fired, and the bullets struck him in the abdomen rather than in the head as planned.

John Paul credits Our Lady of Fatima with saving his life. He has said more than once that he plainly saw her actively intervening to deflect the gunman's arm. He said he maintained consciousness on the ride to the hospital by thinking of Our Lady of Fatima.

There is some controversy that the third part of the secret revealed in the year 2000 was not the real secret. The most basic argument for this revolves around the decision to release the secret much later than as specified by Our Lady. It was thought that the secret might contain condemnatory remarks about the current pope (who obviously wouldn't want to release it), or that it might contain inflammatory remarks about Russia (which would not be good to release during the Cold War). Instead, the third part of the secret as revealed was by far the most unspecific and ambiguous part (compared to earlier parts which said that if unconsecrated, "Russia will spread its errors around the world"). Previous remarks about the secret made by those who knew about it or had read it, were further reasons for doubting the authenticity of the released text. Some had said that the secret consisted almost totally of scripture, while Sr. Lucia said that its meaning as a whole was "Portugual would not lose the faith".

The fate of the three children

One of the three children, Lucia, is still alive. Lucia Abóbora dos Santos is now 97 years old (2004); she was born 22 March 1907. She lives in the convent of the Carmelite Sisters of Coimbra, which she first entered in 1928.

In 1925 in the Carmelite convent at Tuy, Spain, Lucia is said to have seen the Virgin again, to ask her to convey the message of the First Saturday Devotions. A subsequent vision of the Christ Child reiterated this request. In 1929, Mary returned to Sr. Lucia and repeated her request for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart.

Lucia's cousins, the siblings Francisco (1908–1919) and Jacinta Marto (1910–1920) were both victims of the Great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1919.

Francisco and Jacinta were declared "venerable" (two steps away from sainthood) by Pope John Paul II in a public ceremony at Fatima on 13 May1989. John Paul returned there on 13 May 2000 to declare them "blessed". (See Canonization for more on that process.)

Interestingly, during the second apparition on June 13th, 1917, the Virgin Mary predicted the deaths of two of the children. Previously, she'd told them they would all eventually go to heaven. On June 13, Lucia asked the Virgin to take them to heaven soon. Mary replied "Yes, I shall take Jacinta and Francisco soon, but you will remain a little longer, since Jesus wishes you to make me known and loved on earth. He wishes also for you to establish devotion in the world to my Immaculate Heart." The younger children were ecstatic to hear that they'd be going to Heaven "soon", and did not keep this information secret. Family, friends and curious tourists all report Jacinta and Francisco joyfully and serenely predicting their deaths. Jacinta, in fact, accurately predicted the exact hour and detailed circumstances of her death, according to accounts by her own mother, by Lucia, and by hospital staff.

Controversies of Fatima

Fatima is not without controversy. Many non-Christians, and some Christians, do not accept the Church's claim of veracity of the visions. Compare similar visions to shepherd children at La Salette in 1848, published in 1879. In addition, the cult of the Lady of Fatima was used by the authoritarian Salazar regime to bolster itself in power and persecute liberal opposition. During the Salazar period it became almost obligatory to believe in Fatima. This long period of dictatorship was even referred by the opposition as the time of "Fado, Fatima, and Football".

Also, in the years prior to the revelation of the Third Secret, many tabloids used the Secret for their own purposes. They would publish articles on an almost regular basis saying that the Third Secret was a vision of the end of the world, or "earth changes" similar to those predicted by Edgar Cayce, which would come to pass in the very near future. Many of these articles, which were written prior to the year 2000 would say that the events contained in their version of the Third Secret vision would occur around the year 2000.

Influence of the apparitions

Fátima has become a usual Spanish female name. Its users are usually not aware of the connection to Muhammad's Fatima.

Our Lady Fatima Parish is one of the divisions of mainland Macau, a former Portuguese colony, now part of the People's Republic of China.

Official position of the Roman Catholic Church

Catholics are not required to believe in a miraculous origin for the events at Fatima: as with other Church-approved visions such as those of Bernadette Soubirous, it is designated "worthy of belief".