Benedict XVI: The prophetic mission of Fatima is not complete

In seven years you will return here to celebrate the centenary of the first visit made by the Lady “come from heaven”, the Teacher who introduced the little seers to a deep knowledge of the Love of the Blessed Trinity and led them to savour God himself as the most beautiful reality of human existence. This experience of grace made them fall in love with God in Jesus, so much so that Jacinta could cry out: “How much I delight in telling Jesus that I love him! When I tell him this often, I feel as if I have a fire in my breast, yet it does not burn me”. And Francisco could say: “What I liked most of all was seeing Our Lord in that light which Our Mother put into our hearts. I love God so much!” (Memoirs of Sister Lúcia, I, 42 and 126).

Brothers and sisters, in listening to these innocent and profound mystical confidences of the shepherd children, one might look at them with a touch of envy for what they were able to see, or with the disappointed resignation of someone who was not so fortunate, yet still demands to see. To such persons, the Pope says, as does Jesus: “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?” (Mk 12:24). The Scriptures invite us to believe: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:29), but God, who is more deeply present to me than I am to myself (cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, III, 6, 11) – has the power to come to us, particularly through our inner senses, so that the soul can receive the gentle touch of a reality which is beyond the senses and which enables us to reach what is not accessible or visible to the senses. For this to happen, we must cultivate an interior watchfulness of the heart which, for most of the time, we do not possess on account of the powerful pressure exerted by outside realities and the images and concerns which fill our soul (cf. Theological Commentary on The Message of Fatima, 2000). Yes! God can come to us, and show himself to the eyes of our heart.

EXPOSÉ: New Interview with Fr. Charles Murr on Mother Pascalina, Bugnini, Paul VI, and Other Major Figures

Preliminary Note: For decades, traditionalists have suspected or accused Annibale Bugnini of being a Freemason, based essentially on hearsay and circumstantial evidence. The matter remained doubtful to such an extent that the eminent French historian Yves Chiron, himself a traditionalist, was unable to credit the rumor, judging the evidence inadequate and inconclusive. The situation began to change last May when Kevin Symonds presented credible details, courtesy of Fr. Brian Harrison, naming Cardinal Dino Staffa as the one who brought Paul VI the "smoking gun" information on Bugnini, which precipitated the latter's sudden fall from grace. 

It is therefore of major significance that more and better evidence — in the form of an interview conducted by Kevin Symonds with Fr. Charles Theodore Murr, author of The Godmother: Mother Pascalina: A Feminine Tour de Force (2017) — has now appeared that independently confirms the same sequence of events. With such confirmatory proofs, it is fair to say that there is no longer any reasonable doubt that the moving force in the Consilium was, indeed, a Freemason. 

Why Did “Prayer and Penance” Go Missing on the Feast of St John Vianney?

Today on the 1960 general Roman calendar is the feast of St John Mary Vianney. When he was canonized in 1925, his feast was set for August 9, but in 1960 he was bumped back a day to August 8. His dies natalis, August 4, had been occupied by St. Dominic for so many centuries that no one thought of moving him. As Gregory DiPippo pointed out at New Liturgical Movement, St. John Vianney would himself have celebrated Mass in honor of St. Dominic on August 4th.

What struck me this morning as I assisted at Mass is the Collect, which is the only proper item (the rest of the Mass is from the Common of Confessors “Os Justi”). Here is how it reads:

Bishop Athanasius Schneider: "The devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in times of tribulation"

The devotion to Our Lady of Fatima in times of tribulation

The Right Rev. Athanasius Schneider

Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana

Humanity and especially the Catholic faithful are currently experiencing a time of tribulation. For Christians, is an atmosphere of catacombs and persecution of the faith. However, the facts show that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens were violated, disproportionately and unjustifiably limiting their fundamental freedoms, and in first place the exercise of freedom of worship.

De Mattei: The “confinement” of the Sanctuary of Fatima

Roberto de Mattei 

Corrispondenza Romana

May 13, 2020

On the eve of the 103^rd anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima, we learnt that the Portuguese National Republican Guard (PNRG) since May 9^th has  been conducting operation “Fatima at Home” with the aim of impeding pilgrims from entering the Marian Sanctuary on May 13^th. The news was given by the Director of Operations, Vitor Rodrigues, who praised the ‘fantastic collaborative position’ of the members of the Catholic Church, which the PNRG had been working with ‘for many weeks’.* Following this operation of “confinement”, the Fatima Sanctuary was placed under surveillance by 3500 National Guard soldiers, with the duty of assuring that no member of the faithful might approach the place without reasonable justification.** And, for the authorities, prayer obviously doesn’t constitute a valid justification. Basically, all means of access to the Sanctuary have been cordoned off, but even other places of devotion as well, such as  Aljustrel, the village where Lucia, Francesco and Jacinta were born, Valinhos, the apparition site of August, and even the Via Crucis.  

It’s as if we are on the eve of the French Revolution again, when Jansenism, Gallicanism, the Enlightenment and enlightened Catholicism  - different and varied forces, but united in their hate for the Church of Rome – linked together and multiplied their forces, under the shadow of the Masonic Lodges, to destroy definitively the religious and social order founded by Christianity.

De Mattei: Fatima 100 Years later. A Marian call for the whole Church

Conference of Prof. Roberto de Mattei

Buckfast Abbey, Devon, England
 12-13 October 2017

The historical framework of the Message of Fatima

The message of Fatima is aimed at the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is its essence, as Father Joaquin Alonso (1938-1981) [1], Father Serafino Lanzetta[2] and other authors have grasped well. The prophecy contained in the message of July 13^th 1917 has its culminating point in the promise: “In the end My Immaculate Heart will triumph”. It’s important to emphasize that this promise is unconditional[3].

However, there is another dimension, no less important, which deserves our attention and which I intend to focus on.  It‘s the prophecy, that says, if the world doesn’t convert a great chastisement will befall it. Fatima isn’t a generic call to prayer and penance, it is, above all, the announcement of a chastisement and the final triumph in history of Divine Mercy.    

In the vast horizon of private revelations, the Fatima apparitions have their own characteristic: their very close relationship with history. The great apparitions of Our Lady in the 19^th century – Rue du Bac (1830), Sant’Andrea delle Fratte (1842), Lourdes (1858) while shedding light on their times, don’t have direct historical references.

Event: Fatima conference at Buckfast Abbey

Not sure why, but this Fatima conference hasn't been publicized elsewhere that we can find. It looks like it will be quite hard-hitting in the prophetic interpretation of our current times:

A message of hope from Hiroshima

Chiesa e Post Concilio

August 7, 2017

The testimony of Professor Hikoka Vanamuri, survivor of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

Hikoka Vanamuri, former Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tokyo, was interviewed while on pilgrimage in Fatima. This is what he had to say:“I’ll never return to Japan. After years of study, after years of meditation I have understood that life under the tainted atmosphere of Buddha is an embittered historical testimony of blatant paganism. I converted to Catholicism. I made this decision after the explosion of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I was in Hiroshima for historical research. I was in the library when the bomb exploded. I was busy consulting a Portuguese book and my eye happened to catch an image of Our Lady of Fatima.  I had the impression that this image moved, as if to say something. All of a sudden there was a blinding light, hurting my eyes intensely. I was terrified. The cataclysm had come about. The sky had darkened and a cloud of brown dust had covered the city. The library was burning. Men were burning. Children were burning. The air itself was burning.  I didn’t even have  the slightest scratch on me.   The sign of the miracle was evident.  Yet I wasn’t able to explain what had happened.  

De Mattei: Fatima 2017

Roberto de Mattei

“Il Tempo”

May 14, 2017

Five hundred people were in the square outside the Sanctuary at Fatima waiting for Pope Francis and the canonization of the two little shepherd Francesco (10) and Jacinta (9), who, along with their cousin Lucia dos Santos saw Our Lady and heard Her words between May 13th and October 13th 1917. The canonization took place and the Church has the youngest children not martyrs in Her history, written in the book of saints. The process for the beatification of their cousin Lucia who died in 2005, is also underway.

What Fatima devotees from all around the world expected from the Pope was not only the canonization of the visionaries, but also the fulfillment  of some of Our Lady’s requests, until now gone unheeded. 

Why we should go to Fatima in 2017

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

March 8, 2017

Those who go on pilgrimage to Lourdes do so in order to immerse themselves in the supernatural atmosphere of the place. The Grotto in which Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858 and the pools where the sick continue to be immersed in the miraculous water, are fringes of a blessed land in a now ungodly society. Those who go to Fatima, do so, on the other hand, to gain spiritual refreshment not from a place, but from a heavenly Message: the so-called “secret” Our Lady entrusted to the three little shepherds a hundred years ago, between May and October in 1917.  Lourdes chiefly heals bodies, Fatima offers spiritual direction to disorientated souls.

On May 13th 1917, at the Cova de Iria – an isolated place of rocks and olive trees, near the village of Fatima in Portugal “a lady dressed all in white, more brilliant then the sun, shedding rays of light, clear and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water, pierced by the burning rays of the sun"* appeared to three children who were watching over their sheep, Francesco, Jacinta and their little cousin Lucia dos Santos. This Lady revealed Herself as the Mother of God, who was entrusted with a message for mankind and who gave an appointment to the three shepherd-children for the 13^th  of every subsequent month until October. The last apparition ended with  a great atmospheric miracle, named “the dance of the sun”, seen even from 40 kilometres away, by tens of thousands of people. 

Project: CD of choral music dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima.

From a reader of Rorate:

Smooth Stone Foundation, a non-profit corporation dedicated to promoting Catholic culture, is working on a project in which your readers may be interested.

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima, we are commissioning a CD of choral music dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. The music will be performed by professional choir singers conducted by Dr. Tim McDonnell, a professor of Sacred Music at Catholic University of America. The music will be traditional Catholic music drawn largely from Portugal. We hope to have the music recorded and CDs produced by May 13th, the 100th anniversary of the first appearance of the Blessed Virgin at Fatima. Here is the project page.

(We previously produced a CD of choral music for Christmas of 2015. Links to videos from that project may be found at the foundation's FB page.)

De Mattei - Completeness or not of Fatima message is beside the point: what matters is that what is known is unfolding

Church Crisis in light of the Fatima secret

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

May 25, 2016

The centenary year of Fatima was opened on Pentecost Sunday to news that caused quite a sensation.

One Year from the Centennial - FATIMA: the prophecy of a crisis and the promise of an eagerly awaited triumph

Bl. Jacinta Marto

Francesca Bonadonna

Famiglia Domani

May 22, 2014

Almost a century has passed since the great Fatima event when Our Lady, messenger of God, appeared to the three little shepherds to give an immensely important message and to offer Her maternal intercession for a humanity afflicted by sin - a humanity, more narcotized than ever by creeping secularization, Most Holy Mary is the Queen of the eagerly awaited kingdom, foreseen according to Her promise and unforeseen according to its time and modality; the hope of a new millennium for the children of Light i.e. the militant forces of the People of God moved by the Holy Ghost amid the breakers of unrest and disorder but heading towards the safe harbor described in St. John Bosco’s dream, which points to the two pillars of salvation: the Holy Eucharist and the Virgin Mary.

Good News, Bad News:1. Bishop of Oruro formalizes ban on communion in the hand2. Sanctuary of Fatima gets ugly "modern" altar

1. We reported in August last year about the intention of the Polish Verbite Bishop of the Diocese of Oruro, Bolivia to forbid communion in the hand in his Diocese. Bishop Krzysztof Białasik has now issued a decree (dated January 6, 2016) formalizing the ban. (Source). 

H/t to our friends in Adelante la Fe / Rorate Caeli en Espanol.

2.  On Candlemas (February 2), 2016, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fátima was reopened after having been closed for renovations for more than a year. Among the renovations was the installation of a brand-new altar designed by sculptor Bruno Marques, which was consecrated on that day by the Bishop of Fatima, Msgr. António Marto. The following photos are from the official, Portuguese-language Facebook page of the Sanctuary of Fatima:

Ironically, Bishop Marto dedicated part of his Candlemas homily to lamenting the loss of the "transcendent dimension" in Europe. We would have loved to tell him that a good example of that loss was standing right in front of him. 

Prior to the renovations, the Basilica's sanctuary had looked like this:

At least, the tabernacle seems to have been refurbished and the carpeting removed.

(Photo source)

Unfortunately, the installation of ultra "modern" altars in traditionally-designed sanctuaries, implanting ugliness and disharmony in the very heart of beautiful and venerable churches, remains a trend in parts of Europe. We have a post from November 2013 recording more than 40 such cases from 2010 to 2013:  Basket case: The craze for strange new altars and "youth churches". We are well aware of many more cases from 2014 and 2015. 

Pacelli: “…today everything indicates that the punishments of God are imminent…”

"Today all around us everything indicates that the punishments from God are imminent: even so – thanks be to God – it is not too late for us. We are capable of impeding them if we believe that this is also a time of grace and recognize what is necessary for our true peace. Beloved faithful! First of all let us recollect ourselves in an act of humility and repentance.  Are we not also somewhat responsible for the catastrophes besetting us? […] If we examine ourselves, every one of us has to confess that we have fallen short […] that we have sinned against the Lord […]."

From the Pastoral Letter to the Dutch Bishops, July 26th, 1942

Andrea Tornielli’s book: Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli, a Man on the Throne of Peter, Milano, 2007, p. 380

Una Fides Blog | Translation, Contributor Francesca Romana

Cardinal: "What Sister Lucia told me: Final Confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over Family and Marriage."

A Cardinal tells: Sister Lucia wrote me…

On Feburary 16, 2008, Cardinal Carlo Caffara (Archbishop of Bologna), after a Mass celebrated at the tomb of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, granted an interview to Tele Radio Padre Pio, which was subsequently reported in the monthly magazine “Voce di Padre Pio” March, 2008 . Here are some significant excerpts.

Luca Signorelli
Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist (detail)
1499-1502
Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto

Q. Your Eminence, recently in Corriere della Sera you said that you had always had a great devotion to Padre Pio. Please tell us why.

I have had great devotion to him since the beginning of my priesthood as a result of a rather unique experience. I had been a priest for some months and a brother-priest came to see me. He was quite a bit older than me and was going through a serious crisis of faith. It is difficult to describe what a crisis of faith is for a priest: a terrible thing! I told him “Brother, I’m too little, and sense that I can’t carry such a burden. Go to Padre Pio.” So he went, and while he was talking to Padre he had a great mystical experience, touched profoundly by the mercy of God. Now he is one of the best priests I know. There you have it, it all began like that.

Q. Did you ever meet Padre Pio personally?

FATIMA: the prophecy of a crisis and the promise of an eagerly awaited triumph

Bl. Jacinta Marto

Francesca Bonadonna

Famiglia Domani

May 22, 2014

Almost a century has passed since the great Fatima event when Our Lady, messenger of God, appeared to the three little shepherds to give an immensely important message and to offer Her maternal intercession for a humanity afflicted by sin - a humanity, more narcotized than ever by creeping secularization, Most Holy Mary is the Queen of the eagerly awaited kingdom, foreseen according to Her promise and unforeseen according to its time and modality; the hope of a new millennium for the children of Light i.e. the militant forces of the People of God moved by the Holy Ghost amid the breakers of unrest and disorder but heading towards the safe harbor described in St. John Bosco’s dream, which points to the two pillars of salvation: the Holy Eucharist and the Virgin Mary.