7/30/2019 Fatima: A Strangely Persistent Mystery
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Fatima: A Strangely Persistent Mystery
(An Introduction)
During the long history of the Church, there have been numerous
apparitions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. Most of these were private revelations, reserved to
one or a few privileged
persons. Some have since taken on public status, and have become
the focus of widespreaddevotions, such as those associated with
Lourdes in France and Guadalupe in Mexico. Onlyone series of
apparitions, however, has become the center of a prolonged and
profound
controversy within the Church. Those apparitions occurred at
Fatima, in rural Portugal, in1917.
Why have the Fatima apparitions been the subject of so much
controversy for so long? Whywould an appearance of the Mother of
God bearing a message for all mankind provoke
decades of deceptions and cover-ups, devious manipulations and
the illicit suppression of
documents and witnesses? These are questions any reasonable
Catholic might ask, becauseChurch authorities have provided very
curious and contradictory leadership on this subjectover the
years.
There was a time, back in the 1940s and 50s, when devotion to
Our Lady of Fatima wasactively encouraged by the Vatican, and
millions of Catholics looked forward to fulfillment of
the Blessed Virgins request (that Russia be consecrated to Her
Immaculate Heart). Now,half a century later, this request remains
unfulfilled, and Vatican authorities are telling thefaithful that
Fatima once officially declared "worthy of belief" is a thing of
the past.How did this happen? And what does it tell us about whats
going on in our troubled Church?
There are many aspects of the Fatima story, each following its
own tortured path throughtime since the apparitions occurred.
One of these aspects concerns the three shepherd children who
actually saw the Virginappear. Two of them died only a few years
later, but the third seer, Lucia dos Santos, has
spent her life as a cloistered nun, and is now over 95 years
old. The Churchs treatment ofher raises some troubling questions.
Sister Lucia is uniquely able to resolve issues that have
kept the Fatima controversy boiling for decades but the Vatican
wont allow her to speak.Why? Why silence the one person who knows
the answers to fundamental questions, and isready, willing and able
to give them?
Another aspect of Fatima concerns the consecration of Russia.
Why has the Vatican
repeatedly refrained from performing this ceremony, deliberately
phrasing variousconsecrations to avoid mention of Russia? Why have
there been repeated attempts byChurch officials to claim falsely
that this consecration has actually been done?
A further aspect concerns the so-called Third Secret, a document
written by Sr. Lucia,
giving the third and final part of the message imparted by Our
Lady of Fatima. Why wasntthis one-page document revealed, as
agreed, in 1960? Why did the Vatican release a
different, four-page document 40 years later, and claim it was
the Third Secret? What doesthe real Third Secret say that makes the
Vatican so determined to hide it?
Yet another aspect of the story concerns the man who has devoted
his priestly life topromoting the Message of Fatima. Fr. Nicholas
Gruner has been the object of an escalating
series of attempts by Vatican officials to silence him, as they
have so effectively silenced Sr.Lucia. Why is the Vatican so
anxious to silence a priest who has done nothing wrong, even
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