This is the first of two parts celebrating the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun on Oct. 13, 1917, which marked the climax of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima before the first two world wars. Here, we uncover the myths perpetrated by anti-Marian and atheists groups, and clarifies the apparition’s true message.

On Oct. 13, 1917, 70,000 rain-drenched people gathered at the Cova da Aria in Fatima to view a miracle promised by Our Lady.

“Then all saw the clouds part, and the sun appear like a great disk of white fire.” The visionaries related later that “she was crowned, and the Infant Jesus stood on her knee.” She appeared as Our Lady of Sorrows, then as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. (Bro. Ernest, CSC, Imprimatur Bishop Leo Pursely, DD, https://www.theimmaculateheart.com).

It is strange how the Third Secret of Fatima is today surrounded by deceptions and attacks that undermine its true message. For example, a History Channel documentary claimed that part of the Third Secret is still secret, that only 25 of the 62 lines of the original manuscript was revealed. This is not true. If you look at the official Vatican website, you will see all 62 lines. Visit this link and see for yourself: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html.

The Fatima messages are the subject of attacks from anti-Marian groups, who do not believe we should pray to Our Lady. They say that praying to Our Lady is a form of idolatry. Marian devotees, however, explain that they pray to Our Lady not as a God, but as a human bridge to God, a mediatrix.

E-mail deception

Another deception is an e-mail that has been circulating for years, saying one must buy blessed candles to be spared. Only blessed candles can be lit during the three days of darkness, none other.

The blessed candles are not part of the original Fatima messages. The intent is to distract us and make us focus on external rituals so that we forget the essence of the message, namely internal spiritual transformation, a return to the Lord through prayers and penance, which will save us from calamity, not the lighting of candles. The misleading e-mail is littered with intertwining quotes and sub-quotes, until you can no longer distinguish what Our Lady is saying and what the anonymous author is adding. It is an ingenious, subtle form of deception. Is this the work of the devil?

It speaks of “a great earthquake 10 minutes before midnight going for eight hours and will tilt the earth’s axis 23 degrees.” There are no such exact scientific data in the Third Secret. Although the intent is to strengthen the true Fatima message of repentance to avoid punishment, people become more skeptical if such detailed prophecies are not fulfilled.

The e-mail says: “Once [God’s punishment] has started, you should not look outside under any circumstance!” The intent of the deception is to instill the wrong kind of fear, fear of penalty for transgressing a meaningless rule. True fear of the Lord involves prayer and penance.

Sister Lucia writes: “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 splendor that Our Lady radiated toward him from her right hand. Pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!’”

This passage simply explains that Marian intervention can save the world from disasters and God’s wrath, but only if we return to Him.

The real reason many Popes did not reveal the Third Secret was not so much because it might cause panic because of the scary prophecies (the First and Second Secrets, with its vision of hell, were more scary). It was more because the Third Secret cites “a Bishop dressed in white,” referring to a Pope, who would be assassinated. The Popes from 1917-2002 simply found it indiscreet to reveal such a horrible event. Sister Lucia later confirms that the Bishop in white was Pope John Paul II.

Failed assassinations

Our Lady intervened in this prophecy of assassination. There were two failed assassination attempts against Pope John Paul II circa 1981. In an official Vatican report, Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli, Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, wrote that the Pope was saved by “a Mother’s hand that guided the bullet’s path.” Pope John Paul II later gave the bullet to the Bishop of Leiria-Fatima, who placed it in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima.

Fatima scholars in the Vatican reported that the Cuban crisis of 1961, the closest mankind had to a nuclear confrontation at that time, was another such Marian intervention. Those who do not believe in Marian devotion argued that there were no such interventions. Events simply happened. Belief in Marian intervention is based on personal faith. One is not obliged to believe, even if many Marian devotees do.

Another Marian intervention posed by Fatima scholars was a critical geopolitical event—the end of the Cold War era. In 1981, Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which was Our Lady’s request in earlier messages, as a precondition for world peace. After that, for the first time, a Russian Leader, Gorbachev, visited the papacy, where he was touched by his dialogue with Pope John Paul II.

Three important events ensued. First, Gorbachev instituted détente as a unilateral policy towards establishing peace with the West. This led to the eventual breakup of the Russian empire, and the end of the Cold War. Second, Gorbachev opened up the churches in Russia and ended decades of suppression of both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Third, the breakup of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signaled the last of many events easing tensions between the US and Russia, ingredients to a perceived new war.

Our Lady said in Fatima: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace.”

This is a personal true account. As I prayed with Sr. Eva Maamo, an RM awardee, at the home of the visionary of Our Lady of Grace in San Francisco del Monte, she went into a sudden convulsion and trance. Instantly, her voice changed to a deeper tone. She said: “I can no longer hold off the hand of my Son. Pray, pray, pray.”

My hair stood on end. There was urgency in her voice. This sums up the true message of the Third Secret in all its simplicity, beyond all the myths and deceptions. Our Lady is trying hard to prevent disasters falling on us, but we seem indifferent.

Biblical prophecy

Is God ready to strike or to forgive? Who will prevail, the God of Wrath or the God of Mercy? In an interview by Fr. Agustin Fuentes in 1957, Sister Lucia said: “Father, the Most Holy Virgin did not tell me that we are in the last times (end times in modern apocalyptic jargon) but she made me understand this… because she told me that the devil is in the mood for engaging in a decisive battle against the Virgin. Hence, from now on we must choose sides. Either we are for God or we are for the devil. Believe me, Father, God is going to punish the world and very soon. The chastisement of heaven is imminent.”

Our Lady said at Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

This would be in fulfillment of the biblical statement that a Woman clothed with the sun would crush the head of the serpent. The youngest visionary, Jacinta, adds: “The future of humankind is in God, and that we are active and responsible partners in creating that future.”

Our Lady showed the children visionaries a horrifying vision of hell where “souls were being tormented by frightful devils… Our Lady [right after the vision] said to the children… if [people] do not stop offending God… He is going to punish the world for its crimes by means of war, of hunger, and of persecution of the Church… 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 Pius XI.’”

The “war [which] is going to end” referred to World War I. The “worse one” referred to World War II. It seems there were no Marian interventions in these two great world wars where millions died. And a third world war that would eclipse the first and second is not impossible, if we listen to the warnings of Our Lady.

The Big ‘If’

Marian intervention and the theology of sin and punishment simply teach us that prophecies have a big “if.” They are premised on the fact that Man fails to return to the Lord. If Man returns to the Lord, prophecies of disasters can be reversed or even deferred.

Take for example the prophet Jonah. The Lord told him to tell the people of Nineveh, the affluent New York City of biblical times, that the city would be destroyed, if they would not repent. Nineveh repented and returned to the Lord, who spared the city. The opposite occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord said that, if there was but one holy person remaining, He would spare the twin cities. There was none. He destroyed them in fulfillment of the prophecy.

A case in point is 9/11. God can actually permit dire events to happen as a message for Man’s pride. The similarity of the twin towers of New York to the twin towers of Babylon is awesome. They are both twin towers. They both represent the sin of pride, the arrogance of Man believing he can do without God. Many cannot see 9/11 as a message and warning from the God of Wrath. It is more than just a crime by terrorist enemies against America. The message was for the entire humankind.

The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters lately tend to point to the God of wrath overwhelming the God of mercy—Hurricanes Katrina and Irene, mega tsunamis in Japan and Jakarta, mega earthquakes in Peru and China, floods and forest fires everywhere, powerful weather disturbances due to climate change, new threats of bird viruses, and so on.

Today, the averted conflict with Russia is being replaced by a new conflict with the Arab communities. Israel with the US, Iran with Syria are easily the core of a new powder keg, which may be the beginnings of World War III. World wars ferment rapidly when nations polarize against each other into two opposing forces. For example, China and Russia can polarize with the Arabs in the name of oil and gas. In the future, all that is needed is a small short fuse, when all of us are asleep.

All up to us

Can we still avert disasters? Can we still invoke Marian intervention through prayers and penance? Can Our Lady still hold off the Angel with the flaming sword and the hand of her Son? Or are we hopelessly now in the era of the “end times?” It is all up to us. Only Mankind’s actions can change the big “if.”

The God of Wrath speaks: “There will be blood and fire. The sun will be turned into darkness, the moon into blood. On the great and terrible day of My coming, all who call on My name shall be saved. (Joel 3:1-5)”

And the God of Mercy speaks: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting weeping and mourning. Rend your hearts, not your garments. Return to me your Lord your God. For gracious and merciful am I, slow to anger, rich in kindness, relenting in punishment. (Joel 2:12-13)”

Marian intervention and the war with Satan are summed up in the bible: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun. She was with Child, wailing in birth pains. Another sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. The dragon stood before the woman, to devour her Child. She gave birth to a Son, destined to rule all nations. In utter rage, the serpent waged war against the rest of her offsprings, those bearing witness to the Son born of her womb. (Revelation 11:1-6, 14-17)”

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