Ninety-three years ago [yesterday], on July 13, 1917 — precisely when Lenin was beginning to foment the Russian revolution in Petrograd (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Days) — three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, for the third time in three months on the 13th of the month (May 13, June 13, July 13), saw a Lady appear before them in the air, an apparition, and heard her speak a message.
It was about noon.
Such was the origin of the “secret” of Fatima — of three secrets, to be precise.
At that moment, in mid-1917, Europe was, for all intents and purposes, committing a type of suicide. World War I was three years old. Hundred of thousands of young men were lined up in trenches on the Western front, and in some battles, like Verdun, hundreds of thousands were killed in a matter of hours, as lines of human flesh surged forward, were mowed down, and surged forward again — in vain.
In the West, there was stalemate.
In the East, the Russians changed their government, pulled out of the war, and the Germans, essentially, won.
In those months in the middle of 1917, the civilization that had once been called “Christendom” energetically sculpted its own tombstone. (We are putting the finishing touches on that work in our own time.)
Wherever there had been a Christian government, a Christian legislation, a Christian ethos, a Christian world, it was being dismantled.
In central Europe, the Catholic Hapsburg government of Austria-Hungary, heir of the Holy Roman Empire with roots deep in the middle ages, was overthrown. The Emperor Karl and his wife were exiled to the island of Madeira, and the modern, secular states of Austria and Hungary were born.
In Russia, once called “Holy Russia,” the Romanovs were overthrown by Lenin, and communism became the official religion of the state, dogmatically atheistic, and the Russian Orthodox Church went into eclipse, fiercely persecuted. The new rulers turned churches into latrines.
In Germany, after the war, the Weimar Republic replaced the rule of the Protestant Hohenzollern Kaiser, and shortly thereafter the National Socialists came on the scene, while in England, the Anglican monarchs, heads of the Church, increasingly gave way to Parliament as Britain too grew ever more secularized.
The three children of Fatima must have dimly conceived of these events, as their elders and parish pastors must have spoken of the terrible war, and of the overthrow of traditional values which was occurring everywhere, and even all around them, in Portugal. (For a synthetic summary of Portugal’s anti-clerical revolution in 1910 in a popular style, see: http://www.fatima.org/essentials/opposed/masonrevol.asp)
A Reflection on Apparitions
Can apparitions really occur?
Isn’t it almost silly, according to our “modern” mind, which is so very rational, to think that the heavens can open, and a face can appear, and speak, to three children, or to a nun in Japan, or to a group of young people in Yugoslavia?
It does seem silly to many. Yet there is no doubt that apparitions occur. The evidence is overwhelming
The entire tradition of Scripture, of the people of Israel, of the Christian people from the beginning, is filled with appearances, epiphanies, moments when the veil which separates this “age,” this temporal world, from the “age to come,” the “eternal world,” parts, or lifts, and dazzling light, or a resplendent face, appears. This has happened, and happens.
Yet what does it mean? Many, indeed, would argue that it is “merely” a “psychological phenomenon.”
And they would be, in a sense, right!
The phenomenon does occur in the mind, in the psyche.
But that does not mean that what occurs is not true, not an “objective” phenomenon.
Such theophanies, such “revealings” of the presence of the holy (and God alone is holy) are like the moment of the Transfiguration. They are like the moment at table after the walk to Emmaus, when Jesus is recognized, even though he had already been with the disciples for many hours.
And, at Fatima, the objective reality of this “phenomenon” was punctuated dramatically on October 13, 1917, when the “Miracle of the Sun” occurred.
In front of a startled crowd of some 70,000 people, including the most skeptical of observers, something happened which was extraordinary and dramatic, and was perceived even by those who were not “susceptible” to such phenomena. There are even photographs of the stunned spectators looking up toward the sun-filled sky. Something happened. Something happened.
We once called such moments graces, literally, gifts. Something freely given by an “other” to someone who may be very humble, very unlearned, very simple, very ordinary by most standards.
In this sense, there is no particular honor, no personal sense of pride, to be associated with “receiving” an apparition, or any gift, of God. Since it is something given, it is, by definition, unmerited. There is truly no basis for the “mystic” to vaunt his “worth” — had God not desired to give the “experience,” it would not have been given.
Indeed, sometimes it seems that it is only those who are small, and weak, and broken, who can receive such graces. Like impoverished shepherd children in Portugal…
Sometimes, even, such graces seem sent in order to heal, to help set in motion a healing process — this could occur, perhaps, even to a modern person, even, perhaps, to a Vatican journalist.
Those who do not receive such graces — well, perhaps they are not so in need of healing, not so broken.
Being broken may be part of the price of being receptive to such graces, noticing them, “seeing” them.
It is all a mystery.
Benedict and Fatima
Strikingly, Pope Benedict reflected on precisely this mystery only two months ago, when he visited Fatima on the 93rd anniversary of the first apparition, on May 13.
During his homily that day, he said that some people might react with jealousy to Mary’s apparitions to the three young visionaries, disappointed that they have not had such experiences.
But that’s a mistake, he said, because God’s power can be perceived by all.
“God… 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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
In that same homily, the Pope made the interesting remark that Fatima’s message and mission are “not over.”
They are not over, the Pope said, because the need for penance and conversion in the world continues.
And, as he flew to Portugal, speaking to reporters on his plane, the Pope suggested that the Fatima prophecy of a time of suffering for the Church could refer, in a general way, to the priestly sex abuse crisis.
“The Lord told us that the Church will always be suffering in various ways, up to the end of the world,” he said. “The important point is that the message, the answer of Fatima, is not substantially addressed to particular devotions, but is the fundamental response: permanent conversion, penance, prayer, and the three cardinal virtues: faith, hope and charity.” (Here is a link to a story on these events: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1002007.htm)
What Was the Message?
The children of Fatima said that, against their own volition and expectation, they saw a Lady, who appeared beautiful to them, and who spoke to them.
What was the essence of her message? What were the contents of her “secrets”?
I had thought much about writing on this matter. It has been on my mind for some time. And I have even taken some halting steps to research the question.
I have spoken twice, in person, at length, to Archbishop Loris Capovilla, the private secretary of Pope John XXIII, at Capovilla’s residence in northern Italy (he is still alive today; he lives near the birthplace of Pope John XXIII, in a tiny village called Sotto il Monte, not far from Bergamo).
We discussed the “third secret,” which he opened in the summer of 1959, at John XXIII’s request, out at Castel Gandolfo, in August of that year.
The Pope, with a Portuguese monsignor present to translate, read the text. John then ordered Capovilla to put it back in the envelope and told him to write on the envelope that it had been opened on that day, that the Pope had read it, and that the Pope had decided to leave the message for one of his successors to make public.
I asked Capovilla about the size and shape of the envelope he put the secret in, and exactly what he wrote on the outside of the envelope, and even whether he wrote in pencil or ink — ink, he said.
I spoke about Fatima more than once with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. The last time was in mid-March of 2005, just two weeks before John Paul II died, and just one month before Ratzinger was elected Pope.
In the days just after that meeting, I visited Sister Lucia’s convent in Coimbra. (Lucy was one of the three shepherd choldren, along with Francisco and Jacinta, who saw the apparitions; she lived until she was 97.) She had just died, in February 2005. (Here is a link to the story of her life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lúcia_Santos)
I received permission to visit her cell. I saw the little bed she slept on, and died on. I saw the lemon tree in the cloister garden outside her window. I saw the box of thread and beads she kept on her desk to make rosaries…
I later met and talked with Antonio Socci, author of a book which alleges that the text of the “third secret” released by the Vatican is not complete.
And over the years I have traveled 15 times to Russia, meeting with Catholic and Orthodox and even Communist officials there, attempting, in my own small way, to ascertain whether the “conversion of Russia” promised by Our Lady at Fatima has already occurred, or is starting to occur, and what I possibly could write, or do, to help that process in a nation which passed through 70 years of official state atheism. (Hence the effort to sponsor concerts of Russian Orthodox music in the West.)
Also, in recent years, I have spoken with high-ranking officials in the Catholic Church who have told me they are troubled by the lack of clarity about the entire matter of Fatima, even now — even since Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, has stated publicly that everything is clear and there is no problem about the content of the “third secret.” And, as these officials are superior to me, I cannot but feel they they are quietly encouraging me to continue to study this question, although I do not know why that should be so.
Regarding our understanding of the message of Fatima, what has changed in the past 10 years is the sexual abuse scandal. What has changed is the awareness of corruption in the Church, in men and women of the Church, on a level which, prior to ten years ago, most felt was impossible.
And so the essential message of Fatima, the message to repent, and to pray, and to offer up personal sacrifices for the souls of many, seems more relevant today than ever.
Whether the consecration of Russia has ever been done according to the will of the Lady who appeared at Fatima, is not a matter for me to judge. Clearly, many officials in the Church affirm that it has been done, and many simple faithful continue to have their doubts, since the word “Russia” was never publicly used.
And whether the full text of the “third secret” was or was not revealed is also not a matter for me to judge. Many officials in the Church affirm that it has been, and many simple faithful continue to have their doubts.
But the profound basis of the entire story remains this: three simple children were chosen to see and hear certain things, and through them, thousands more, then millions more, were able to catch a glimpse “behind the veil.”
And what they saw so moved them that they spent the rest of their lives attempting to live, and communicate, what they had seen and heard.
It is this sense of the reality of the holy, the reality of the divine, the reality of the need for all of us to grow closer to this great reality, which I think is the essence of the message of Fatima.
And if we have lost our belief in the reality and importance of these things, then we have fallen far, and are to be pitied, for we have lost our way.
