I like watching the odd documentary, and I have a few recorded now off the Discovery Channel and others that I’m just starting to catch up on. One I watched at the weekend has resulted in more than a few hours researching the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima.
The documentary was part of a series called “The Nostradamus Effect.” As best as I can figure out, this “Effect” is where there is seeming convergence between multiple prophecies made by different people, thereby corroborating their wider vision. I think. Something like that anyway.
So, this episode was looking at the Three Secrets of Fatima and what they meant or could mean. I knew very little of the “secrets”; I knew only that Our Lady had apparently appeared to three children in Portugal back in the early 20th Century, and that she had apparently given a sign, known as the “Miracle of the Sun“. This is where some 70,000 people noted that the Sun seemed to dance in the sky, right at the time foretold by Our Lady. There are plenty of sceptics about this event, but the Vatican did accept that something supernatural seems to have gone on at that point.
Anywho, Our Lady apparently also provided three “secrets” to the children to help spread a specific message of repentance and turning back to God (always a good idea). The first gave the poor kids a vision of Hell – literally. The second predicted the end of World War I, the beginning of World War II, and warned that if Russia – seat of atheistic Communism – wasn’t consecrated to her Immaculate Heat by the Pope and worldwide bishops simultaneously, then Communism would spread. Which it did.
Then there was the third secret. While the other two were released by Sister Lucia (the last surviving visionary) in 1941, the third was only written down by order of the local bishop in 1943. Sister Lucia did so, and then put it in an envelope, marking that it was to be revealed “after 1960″ when it would be better understood.
This is where the controversy starts. Not only was the secret not released in 1960 (despite being read by the pope), but was not released until the year 2000! And, when it was released, the argument was put forth that it wasn’t the complete text provided by Sister Lucia, and that there was a page missing.
Dun-dun-duhn! Conspiracy alert!
I don’t want to get in to the ins and outs of whether or not there is still a hidden part or “fourth secret” of Fatima. (Although, one small note: I find it hard to reconcile the official interpretation of the Secret by then Cardinal Ratzinger with his comments from 1984 about it being about the “importance of the end times”. In 1984 he says it’s about the end of the world, and in 2000 he says it’s not a prediction, but a commentary on the past? Which is it?)
But I do find these so-called “secrets” and, in fact, other prophecies downright fascinating. I understand (a little) the concept of public and private revelation, but still – don’t you find them intriguing? The concept of Our Lady, or Our Lord, directly appearing and speaking to people with a view to the future? So easy to discount, yet strangely compelling in some cases.
What does that say about us? Shouldn’t we just live in the moment? This is something I’m really trying harder to do. As someone with a wild and somewhat over-active imagination, my default positions is to cast my thoughts way into the future and explore countless possibilities. But, in doing so, I miss the here and now.
So, what is someone like me to make of Fatima? I don’t quite know. What about you? What do you think about such visions? Something to ignore? To pay close attention to? Somewhere in between.
Genuinely interesting stuff, in my opinion!
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